Pipeline nightmare

Battlers used to be applauded in Australia;  this year I was privileged to meet Celia Mackay, the truest bluest Aussie battler one could imagine. I visited her property with the ‘Bridging the Divide’ bus tour, where city people came to see and hear first hand what rural folk are suffering from the coal and gas rush in Queensland.

Celia, from the Western Downs, thought she was doing the right thing in signing a conduct and compensation agreement with QGC to run their CSG pipeline through her farming property. Here she breeds Santa Gertrudis cattle, fattens lambs and grows forage crops. The interruption would only be for 12 weeks, they assured her, and they’d compensate her for that.

As Celia says, in the bush you expect people to be fair and honest. The company said they’d pay $3000 if she wanted take the agreement to a lawyer, or else she could keep the money, but she feels she was strongly given the impression by QGC that legal advice wasn’t necessary.

Now she knows it was, and that she should never have signed that agreement.

It meant a 40-metre-wide bare excavation where the enormous pipe sections were propped up on dirt until ready to be joined and later buried.

In the meantime, her sheep could get under the pipes.

The wild dogs who were attracted to the long bare stretch of ground could get under them too.

But her vehicle couldn’t get through. So it wasn’t possible for her to use those paddocks.

Photo by Jenny Leunig

They said they’d put fencing and gates in to stop the dogs, and they did, but the knee-high gap under the gates let dogs in and sheep out. She lost more than 100 sheep to wild dog attacks. Celia said it took her ages to get them to add mesh along the bottom of the gates to make them of any use, and that was only after she’d locked QGC out.

In true neighbourly fashion they cut her locks to come in.

In effect Celia lost the use of 500 acres of her 1500 acre property, unable to earn money from crops due to the pipeline dividing paddocks and cutting her off from her access roads.

Other small ‘oversights’ that the company didn’t tell her about was a hole like this where sheep or children could fall in and drown—or a cable buried at a depth where her machinery could cut without knowing about it. She feels they are not treating her, as the landowner, or her business needs, with any respect.

She might have managed for three months but when we spoke in August QGC thought the pipe would be still above ground for another four and a half months. The project had kept being delayed and Celia was going broke.

In 2011 she sold her commercial herd to pay the bills; unable to finish her lambs on a sown pasture, she sold them for less than half their market value. 

Then in 2012, in desperation she risked all and sold much of her precious stud cattle at auction to try to raise the $50,000 needed to take QGC to court and urgently renegotiate their agreement, for fair compensation for the reality of what is happening.

As Celia said, “If I lose this fight I will lose my property; I just don’t see how I’ll be able to keep going. But sometimes you just have to stand up for what is right and fair.”

And she hopes her case will warn other landholders never to sign such agreements without legal advice.

Celia needs help. Please donate whatever you can to this Aussie battler’s legal fund:

Celia MacKay’s Fighting Fund
SDPL Law Practice Trust Account
BSB 084-630
Account: 814159707
Reference No: 2012/539

Cecil Plains: last stand for sanity

About 80 kilometres west of Toowoomba lies some of the richest cropping land in the country — ‘Prime,’ ‘Strategic’ — and any other classification that means the best. This is Cecil Plains.

I’d like you to consider visiting there very soon — as part of a blockade/rally to support the local farmers making a stand against Arrow Energy – and for their land and water.

Good soil and reliable water mean good crops, from cotton to chickpeas.  Cecil Plains has the famous self-cracking black soils over the Condamine Alluvium and the Great Artesian Basin. These are the really essential and sustainable ‘resources’, to be treated with care for future generations.

Arrow Energy wants to drill for CSG here, as part of the short-term resource boom that will end Cecil Plains as a highly productive, long-term food and fibre ‘resource’ region.

The farmers there have been against the ill-informed proposal from the start, to the point of going to court over it. They know what a gas field will do their finely-tuned broad acre precision farming and their careful management of water use for their intensive irrigated cropping.

Arrow has been told of the impacts but presses on regardless and the Government is not stepping in as one would have hoped.

Save Our Darling Downs (SODD) says:

‘After years of discussion with Arrow, the farming community at Cecil Plains remains unconvinced that coexistence is possible. CSG will negatively impact on groundwater and soils and will diminish agricultural productivity in the area. This is unacceptable to our community and should be unacceptable to all Queenslanders.’

And to all Australians.

The project covers 8,600 square kilometers from Wandoan to Goondiwindi and almost 50 per cent of the project area is located on Strategic Cropping Land (SCL). 7,500 wells, thousands of kilometres of pipelines and multiple dams, compressor stations and water treatment facilities are planned.

Why even proceed if SCL would truly stop those activities? 

Lock the Gate says that:

‘Arrow has told the government that this Condamine flood plain area at Cecil Plains has a large proportion of the gas across all their tenements and are insistent they will come on. If they can’t get on to this land they will withdraw their investment.’

When Federal Environment and Water Minister, Tony Burke, approved the first two big gas projects in October 2010, it was against the advice of his own department’s Water Group, with ‘significant concerns’ about the CSG projects, warning that it could be ‘at least 1000 years’ before water levels recovered.

They spoke of ‘significant impact’ likely, with implications for the Murray-Darling Basin by reducing water in the Condamine Alluvium. 

As at Cecil Plains.

After speaking in Cecil Plains last Wedneday night, I stayed with Graham and Wendy Clapham of SODD, and next day Graham showed me around the farm.

I was impressed, not just by the vast size of the operational fields, but the ongoing amount of thought and time and money that has gone into the design of the agriculture practices 

The slope of the land, undetectable to my eye, is precisely calculated as to where the water will go. The machinery is designed not to interfere, nor to compact the soil anywhere more than absolutely necessary. In fact, farmers are highly regulated as to what they put on this flood plain, so as not to interfere with the flow.

How can Arrow avoid that? Even one drill hole interferes.

Here they collect any surface water and pump it into storage dams to use — and reticulate to re-use, as well as drawing on their underground water, which is also re-used. They know how precious the Great Artesian Basin is.

The afternoon before, I drove in through a hazard-reduction smoke haze, but the community opposition and the lack of social licence for Arrow were clear.

If this project goes ahead, anywhere is ‘fair game’. Arrow is coming back there on 22nd August.

If you want to help force a return to sanity and balance in our destructive and biased mining and petroleum laws,  please keep an eye on the Lock the Gate website for a call hundreds of folk to come in the next few weeks and support the farmers of Cecil Plains — and hence the rest of Australia’s sustainable natural resources.

Cecil Plains may prove to be an historic last stand for sanity.

Beyond Coal and Gas

In a few weeks I’m heading back up to Queensland, to revisit some of the places in my Rich Land, Wasteland book, as in the chapter ‘Dark times in the sunshine state’ and others.

The catalyst was that I’ve been invited to speak at the Beyond Coal and Gas Forum, which will be held in the almost ex-village of Louisa Creek, just south of Mackay. It’s right beside the Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay coal stockpiles and loaders, and is threatened by a proposed stockpile in the village itself.

The idea behind the get-together is ‘Uniting communities affected by the boom’. And boy, do they need to help each other under an even more pro-dig and drill-it-all-up government than Anna’s, if that’s possible.

“We have brought together a range of voices to help communities and landholders overcome the steep learning curve that is necessary when coal and gas companies decide to set up shop in their region”, said event organiser, Ms Ellie Smith.

The other speakers include three people, Jo-anne, Maria and Patricia, who are in the book…

  • Jo-Anne Bragg, Principal Solicitor of the Environmental Defenders Office in Queensland (who’ve just had their funding cut!);
  • Dr Gavin Mudd — Monash University: Coal and gas mining impacts on ground and surface water;
  • Mark Ogge — The Australia Institute: The economic impacts of the coal and gas boom and renewable energy alternatives for Central Queensland;
  • Sarah Moles — Lock the Gate Alliance: Key lessons from the Lock the Gate movement in Queensland;
  • Maria MacDonald — Bowen resident and health professional: Health impacts of coal including dust and noise pollution;
  • Jaquie Sheils — GBR Marine Biologist: Threats to the Great Barrier Reef from the coal and gas boom; and
  • Patricia Julien — Mackay Conservation Group: Overview of the extent and impacts of coal expansion in Central Queensland.

“We’re inviting people from all over regional Queensland to come together to learn and share strategies for protecting our land, our water, our reef and all their associated industries. We will look beyond coal and gas to strategies that will build a more secure future”, said Ellie.

WHEN: 9am Saturday 28th July until 4pm Sunday 29 July 2012

WHERE: Louisa Creek Community Centre, Hay Point, South of Mackay

TO REGISTER OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the forum website or contact forum coordinator Ellie Smith at the Mackay Conservation Group on (07) 4953 0808

Personally, I’m looking for inspiration and possible solutions as well as to catch up with many of the people who shared their stories in the book, like Louisa Creek local Betty Hobbs, Paul Murphy, Paola Cassoni, and Avriel and LIndsay Tyson.

Afterwards I’m visiting Bimblebox and giving talks around the regions en route to Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast — details later!

Visit the forum Facebook page

Last Autumn colours

As the last red leaves fell from the Glory Vine, this exquisite little nest, round as tennis ball and about the same size, was revealed. It was knitted with gossamer threads and moss onto three twigs, like grandma making a sock by going round and round on her three needles.

Quite empty, it and its twiggy frame now adorn my verandah collection.

The other verandah drapery is the wisteria, the leaves now mainly butter yellow, edging to amber before they fall. It fills the window behind my desk, and as the afternoon light behind them sets them aglow it helps me bear having to be in here at the computer instead of outdoors on such beautiful still sunny days.

But yellow is also the adamant all-year-round colour of the NO GAS groups in many areas, like Bunnan and Merriwa in the Hunter.  The T-shirts are bold and un-missable, with the simplest of messages worn defiantly centre front.

This photo was taken at the May 1 Rally by friend Sandra Stewart, and sent on to me later. It’s me and my two good friends Alyson Shepherd and Doug Blackwell; although they’ve moved to the north coast from the Merriwa district, they came down to join old mates at the rally.

Yellow definitely predominated on that Autumn day!

City and Country: united we stand!

On May Ist, I joined a busload of Hunter farmers and ‘concerned citizens’ like myself and headed down the freeway to Sydney. There we and 4000-5000 others walked from Martin Place to Parliament House in Macquarie Street, chanting all the way, like ‘City and Country — united we stand!’ and bearing colourful signs that spoke of desperation and anger at the threats to their regions.

The ‘Protect our land and water’ rally was organised by NSW Farmers against the Coalition’s draft Strategic Regional Land Use Policy, which breaks pre-election promises and in reality gives no certainty as to protection of either agricultural or environmental values from CSG or COAL or any other resource company’s desires. It was not, as some media portrayed, solely an anti-CSG rally, although there was plenty of angst about that.

The broken promises centre around exclusion of identified areas of value before exploration licences are issued. Exploration also causes harm (e.g, to aquifers) and investment down that track increases the likelihood of lobbying and success in getting by the proposed protective ‘gateway’. The exploration stage can last years and is extremely stressful for the landowners concerned.

And Cabinet can override the gateway process anyway, as the old 3A did, for projects deemed state significant.

Identifying and mapping areas tp be protected is a good start, but not if is incorrect, so that it only legitimises the absence of extremely important and very obvious features and so offers them not even token protection.

A few glaring omissions just in the Hunter are:

  • the quality Upper Hunter wine industry around Denman is not there as a critical industry cluster!
  • the Gloucester Valley with its guaranteed water and fertile soils as future food bowl, let alone environmental values
  • the Merriwa Plateau’s cropping and grazing areas

To me, these feel like sacrifices to the coal and CSG projects already in the pipeline there.

So people are upset, feel betrayed, and fear for the futures not just of their farms but their region. From young to old, they wore their protests, often handmade, on their hearts, in their hands, around their necks, or like me, on their hats! (Denis Wilson snapped the pics of my hat and me with a strange Mad Hatter expression)

Read more

Friday 13th: a black and white day

Last Friday I collected a special parcel at the post office: my copies of the new book!

After two years, it’s reality, quite a hefty reality at 453 pages, but that includes the many references. It’s half as many words again as my first book, and in a larger format.

The cover looks great, and despite the size, the pages flip easily. So a great production job by Macmillan, following on from Exisle.

Both teams are working hard to promote it, as they are right behind the need for Australians to know of the urgency and gravity of this issue.

I think maybe at last I do feel proud of it, as people keep telling me I should; until now I’ve just been relieved to have survived to finish it! Cathy Smith took the photo.

I understand from Exisle that copies are already being sent to those who pre-ordered online.

I possibly need to explain that I don’t have (or own) the books myself so I can’t sign them, but bring them along to any talk I give near you and I’ll write in them for you. 

So that was the white side of the day.

At 11 am I had to be at a rally outside Singleton Civic Centre, where a public forum was to be held on the Coalition’s  Strategic Regional Land Use Plan. About 300 people were there, bearing signs expressing their concerns and their wishes, like ‘AGL go to hell!’  Merriwa, Putty, Bunnan, Bylong, Bulga, Jerrys Plains, Gloucester… all fighting for their futures.

Nobody was happy about the quite insultingly glib ‘plan’ which broke just about every promise made before the election.

That became anger and frustration in the actual forum as Planning Minister Hazzard in particular seemed to dismiss so many concerns in a manner that to me seemed quite patronising.

Apparently he can’t exclude or ‘ringfence’ areas from mining or drilling because they could be changed at a whim later; why not do it anyway, as Murray Armstrong asked, while they get their plan finalised. And why, I ask, can’t they legislate so they’re not subject to whims?

It would appear that obvious defects in the mapping were news to him: like no mention of a viticulture industry cluster for Upper Hunter wineries; almost nothing worth protecting, so needing to go through the ‘Gateway’ process, in the Gloucester Valley, nor on the cropping and grazing lands of Merriwa.  It seemed like deliberate sacrifices of some areas had been made to coal and gas.

Farmers and residents stressed that Cabinet needed to realise this that was a matter of survival, to be aware of the ‘mental anguish’ of people forced into this daily battle against coal and CSG, and the critical importance of surface and groundwater to farmers. If they don’t, who knows where will it lead? 

The feeling was that Planning was looking after the mining companies; there was no confidence in ‘answers’ given to the limited number of questions able to be fitted in. Surely more than two hours could have been allowed?

But would they listen anyway?

Everyone needs to have their say officially by making a submission by May 3rd. 

If possible, join the rally on May 1 in Sydney: see the NSW Farmers website or call 02 8251 1700.
 
Submissions can be lodged online, by email or by post to
Director, Strategic Regional Policy,
Department of Planning and Infrastructure,
GPO Box 39
SYDNEY NSW 2001

Visit the Rich Land, Wasteland Facebook page

Mudgee: the wHole mining story

Last week a swag of mining bigwigs paid a few thousand dollars each to gather at the Parklands Resort just outside Mudgee and no doubt discuss the many opportunities for them in the region.

Unfortunately, with the three coal mines already operating just 50kms north of their town – Ulan, Moolarben and Wilpinjong– and their planned expansions, plus the proposals for Cobbora, Bylong and Running Stream, a lot of locals take a rather different view on their prospects under coal — or silver, as at Lue, or CSG or whatever else can make a few billion for big business.

So the concerned community groups got together for the first time and held their own ‘people’s conference’ for free. Mid-Western Community Action Network, in conjunction with Bylong Valley Protection Alliance, NSW Nature Conservation Council, Lue Action Group, Merriwa Health Environment Group, Rylstone District Environment Society, Running Stream Water Users Association, and Mudgee District Environment Group, organised a great two-day event.

David Clarke from NSW Farmers is pictured above, speaking from the posh truck stage, watched by M.C. Nell Schofield from Running Stream. (Photo from the Mudgee Mining the wHole story website)

Buses lent and driven by Susan Symons and Grayson Tuck-Lee, themselves severely impacted by the Moolarben mine, took about 100 people to a rally opposite the Resort.

Speakers summed up the issues from the back of a truck; passing traffic stared, some tooted support; only one driver yelled abuse.

Then we walked back to town, carrying a plethora of signs, and chanting ‘No more mines near Mudgee!’

It was a scattered trail, as some walkers were aged and some frail, a few walking with the aid of a stick — and with difficulty.

Several pushed toddlers in strollers — the generation who will bear the brunt of what is happening here long after the bigwigs have nicked off with the loot.

Some folk were from the almost extinct villages of Ulan and Wollar — cleared out by coal. Others had come from beyond the shire to lend support; those of us from the coal-trashed Hunter could only hope Mudgee does not go the same way.

Afternoon sessions at Lawson Park were illuminating, as a wide range of visiting and local speakers offered information and experiences and discussed various impacts, many already evident, from health to housing, business, wineries, tourism and farming. The day ended with a full-house dinner talk by me, called ‘Clearing out the country’, the title of the chapter about this area in my new book.

It was appropriate that I spoke there first about the book, Rich Land, Waste Land — how coal is killing Australia as the ‘Rich Land’ is embodied on the cover by my photo of the Andrews family at their Tarwyn Park property at Bylong — a spectacularly inappropriate place to mine!

Next day a full busload went on the Magical Misery tour to see current and possible future impacted areas. I’d had to leave, but then I’ve done my own misery tour for the book.

I feel that this Mudgee event foreshadows many such combinings of forces, as people power is increasingly seen as the only tool left to us, because, as I said in my talk, ‘reason and right and forward thinking have been taken out of the process’ by government.


Visit the Rich Land, Wasteland Facebook page

National treasure: ours or China’s?

Have your say! Deadline 24th February.

If ever there was proof that this mining boom is supreme madness, the irreplaceable natural wonders of the most special parts of the Goulburn River Gorge now belong to Moolarben Coal Mine.

This is 80% owned by Yancoal Australia, that is, Yanzhou, ultimately owned by the Shendong Provincial Government in China.

Between the Goulburn River Stone Cottages and the famous dripping cliff wall, The Drip, is the Corner Gorge (above); the walk between the two is stunning. (See my posts Natural Treasures and Mining Madness). Tourists and bushwalkers, locals and visitors, picnickers and photographers — all are overwhelmed by their grandeur and beauty.

Of course these ought to be national treasures, protected as part of the adjoining Goulburn River National Park, and accessible for us all to enjoy. I had assumed they were.

Community, council and government had asked Moolarben to include the transfer of The Drip and Corner Gorges to the National Park as part of their offsets package.

BUT in Moolarben’s recently released plans for its Stage Two open cut and underground mine expansion offset plans, the company have NOT done so.

This is something that the government should have mandated — in a sane state. So we have to demand they do so.

Please have your say, objecting to the MCC PPR Stage 2 plan and calling for The Drip and Corner Gorges to be transferred into the Goulburn River National Park to ensure the long term protection and appropriate management and legal public access to this regionally significant recreational, educational and cultural river corridor. 

Ask the Department of Planning to appoint an independent expert panel (PAC) to fully scrutinise the strategies, assumptions and actions.

And Julia asks that ‘If you have time, add a few words why you personally value this river corridor’.

It would be good if you can c.c Save the Drip so they have an idea of how many care enough about this incredible place to fight for it.

We only have until Friday 24 February.

Email to : Dept Planning — Mining and Major Projects
                                                   
Refer to: Moolarben Coal Complex Stage 2 _ Preferred Project Report: Project No: 08_0135

Additional notes from Julia:

    The coal mining boom has caused major devastation to the catchment with the Ulan, Wilpinjong and Moolarben Stage 1 megamines. But they are still planning more…

    The full project description is here or here.

    Summary of impacts: Moolarben Coal Complex Stage 2 _ Preferred Project Report

    • The offset package does not include the culturally and scenically significant river corridor known as The Drip and Corner Gorges securing its long term protection, appropriate management and on going public access.
    • The permanent  damage (at least 100 years) to the Goulburn River and connected groundwater system is unacceptable.
    • Estimated cumulative water use by the three coal mines approximately  30-40ML/day (10-12 gigalitres/annum).
    • Water use for just the Moolarben Mine estimated to be 10.55ML/day (3850 ML/annum).
    • Water deficit for 23 of 24 years (up to 1990ML extra water required).
    • No confidence that the groundwater modelling accurately predicts water impacts – there are significant disparities between Moolarben and Ulan Coal Mines groundwater assessments.
    • Water for coal washing should be first sourced from Ulan Coal Mine surplus groundwater before any extraction from the Northern Borefield (adjacent to the Goulburn River).
    • Clearing of additional 900ha of native forest (123ha EEC Box Woodland)
    • Disturbance footprint of 1546 ha of native vegetation including 4.1 km of Murragamba Creek, 4.1 km of Eastern Creek and a direct impact on over 148 archaeological sites (from scatters to rock shelters).
    • Biodiversity offsets are located outside the Hunter Valley catchment, do not represent “like for like’ nor replace the net loss to the bio-region or the east west vegetation corridor connecting the coastal forest to the western woodlands.
    • Production 17 million tonnes of coal or 23.7 million tonnes CO2-equivalent/year of greenhouse gases fuelling further climate instability.
    • Excessive noise levels e g location of the conveyor on top of ridge (must be sound attenuated and set lowered on landscape to minimise noise dispersal).

Eureka — the future we need to foster

Victoria’s Latrobe Valley is coal power central, and very ‘dirty’ brown coal power at that, with its four power stations, all privately-owned, producing 33% more CO2 than ‘dirty’ black coal. See my posts Coal-powered clouds and Man-made murk from my 2010 visit there.

The oldest station, Hazelwood, alone produces 16 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions  — 15% of Victoria’s total. It was supposed to close in 2009; environment groups want it shut down now. Given that the best technology can do for the others is try to match black coal’s CO2  emissions, the Latrobe does not fit a low carbon future.

But the Latrobe workforce is dependent on coal and coal power jobs. Future-smart unions and workers in the Valley know this situation can’t continue, and are trying to establish transition industries that not only have a future, but positively help reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

It starts with the Earthworker Cooperative — ‘Australian manufacturing: working our way out of climate emergency’ which will now be a permanent link on this site.

Organiser Dave Kerin’s been working towards a positive alternative with his Earthworker strategy, rather than the pointless opposition of jobs vs. environmental needs, for about 10 years, in one way or another. He had looked at the skills base in the Latrobe and sourced a product to which they could be applied, and which had a sustainable future growth market — a locally designed solar hot water system, ‘hotter, cheaper, all stainless steel, gas boosted’.  It will be called Eureka’s Future.

A key part of the plan is that the systems would be part of enterprise agreements, with the energy certificate rebates as incentives for employers — larger scale collective buying, larger scale manufacturing. Five percent of profits would go to social justice programs.

And yet they aren’t getting the government funding they need to start up – and they’ve tried – although the Federal government has committed $100 million and the Victorian government $50 million to HRL’s coal to syngas project.

They do have the firm support of two local manufacturers, Everlast (stainless steel hot water tanks) and Douglas Solar.

100,000 future-smart Australians needed

But they need money. So Earthworker has launched their ‘100,000 Australians Campaign’ to find 100,000 people to become members of the Earthworker Cooperative for $20 each, and to use the funds to establish the factory.

Their aim:  ‘To facilitate the establishment of manufacturing workers cooperatives through our country, especially in the coal regions of Australia, through membership of the Earthworker Cooperative.’

We all know that the planet is in trouble from global warming, and we all know that Australian manufacturing is in trouble. Jobs and profits stay here, and have a future, with projects like this. If our government won’t support workers offering them a non-confrontational and clever solution, we the people, must.

We urgently need such transition industries as Eureka’s Future to help coal-dependent regions like the Latrobe and the Hunter and Lithgow be part of the solution  — not just bear the brunt of it.

This is a movement we all need to foster and grow; visit the Earthworker website and read more. 

I’m from the Hunter and I’m joining. Can you find $20 to join us?

Campaign launch photo from the Earthworker website

Hopes for a saner 2012

Just before Christmas the battlers for the village of Camberwell were given the most wonderful cause to celebrate.
 
They learnt that the Chinese Yancoal’s proposed Ashton South-East open-cut coalmine had been rejected by the Planning Assessment Commission. (Picture by Simone de Peak, Newcastle Herald)

It would have taken all Wendy Bowman’s  (left) farm and caused Deidre and Toby’s Oloffson’s (centre and right) Camberwell village home to be unliveable. (See my post Camberwell — in crisis from coal)

Potential damage to the alluvial systems was a major reason — as Wendy had been saying forever! — and the NSW Office of Water stood its ground against the government’s urging to have it approved.

The NSW Department of Health also stood firm, saying it would create unacceptable cumulative impacts on the health and wellbeing of the residents. Ashton knew this as they had offered to move them out for seven years!

So it seems to me that, just as the people spoke out at the Planning Assessment Commission hearing — and protested outside  — the bureaucrats are speaking up for common sense and long-term vision in planning, and for caring for the community.

Add to that the victory for the Moores (See my post Bullying the blind?) when NuCoal withdrew from any exploration drilling on their farm, (Picture by Ryan Osland, Newcastle Herald) and it seems that people power is emboldening the public powers to voice the truth, regardless of pressure for royalties. 

Dare we hope for glimmers of sanity in decision-making in this state, for more inappropriate mines — and there are plenty in the offing — being rejected in 2012?

Bullying the blind?

Last Tuesday I and a bunch of other people from all walks of life and areas stood in hot sun outside Singleton Court House, or retreated to the shade behind for respite.

We held up home-made signs and chanted ourselves dry while the media recorded our anger and frustration: ‘No NuCoal!’ — ‘Save our Water, Save our Land!’ — ‘Enough is enough!’

And at one stage, a spontaneous ‘Where’s George Souris?’ chant arose, George being the sitting State National Party MP. (In case you don’t remember, the Nationals used to be the party who looked after rural interests.)

Why were we there? Because inside that Court House, Jerrys Plains cattle farmers Ian and Robyn Moore were battling it out against NuCoal Mining, after unsuccessfully ‘negotiating’ with them since July 2010.

Picture by Ryan Osland, Newcastle Herald
Ian is legally blind; he can only work his farm, inherited from his father, because he has known it for so long. He couldn’t cope with new obstructions like the exploration drilling, couldn’t move to another property and he wouldn’t be able to farm here, blind or not, if NuCoal happened to wreck his underground water sources. Going to the Land and Environment Court was the final step, armed with an independent water study that cost the Moores around $50,000. And of course there’ll be the legal fees.

While the hearing proceeded, outside the building, speakers from other areas, like Deidre Oloffson (right) from coal-trashed Camberwell and Stuart Andrews (left) from coal-threatened Bylong shared their concerns. Hunter Communities Network’s Bev Smiles and Lock the Gate’s Drew Hutton kept the talk and the chants flowing.

Two days were set aside for the hearing, but by the end of Day One the judge had come to a decision

Although the holes on alluvial soils were denied to NuCoal, the Moores were ordered to allow the three others on higher ground.

The Moores are devastated and not sure what they will do next.

Their supporters may have been a motley lot but not ‘the rabble’ as NuCoal’s senior counsel described us. Like the Moores, we were standing up and speaking out for the future of farming and rural communities in Australia.

If social licence to proceed means anything, inside that court NuCoal would have been in no doubt they have none.

However, ex-Minister Ian Macdonald, currently being investigated by ICAC for an alleged piece of naughtiness, approved that mine in rather whiffy circumstances.

Soon after the Moores’ day in court and the good media coverage of the ‘rabble,’ the government has asked NuCoal to suspend operations until the ICAC result is known.

Cross your fingers!