In SE Queensland new and expanding coal mines threaten the health of local communities, important water resources, world renowned natural areas, and some of the state's most important farmland.

The legal case against the Acland Stage 3 coal mine expansion on the Darling Downs was one of the largest environmental cases in Australian history.

The 2017 court ruling to reject this expansion was the first time that this Court has ever recommended outright rejection of a mining project after a contested hearing. This follows the courts recommendations of approval for over 290 mining proposals in the previous decade.

The Namoi Valley is part of the Murray Darling Basin and hosts some of New South Wales’ most productive farmland.

From the Liverpool Plains in the south, to Walgett in the west, the communities of the Namoi Valley produce cotton, grains, legumes, beef and vegetables. Across the region, farmland, forests and water are under threat from both coal and coal seam gas development.

Underground coal mining has been occurring in Sydney’s drinking water catchment for many decades, but in the last fifteen years the scale of mining has started harming the catchment.

In the five major drinking water catchments that are specially managed to provide drinking water for 4.5 million people in Sydney, underground coal mining is still expanding, putting at risk the future water security of Australia’s largest city

The Hunter Valley is a rich and unique agricultural area, with diverse industries, a magnificent river system and endangered woodlands- but all that is at risk from coal mining.

The Hunter has been a mining region for two centuries, but in recent years, coal companies have expanded into more and more sensitive areas, hemming in villages with larger and larger mines, making more noise, more dust and driving out sustainable rural industries.

Adani's proposed Carmichael mega-mine in central Queensland will have a disturbance footprint of 28,000 hectares, which is an area greater in size than North Stradbroke Island.

If it proceeds this mine will permanently alter the landscape, leaving behind extensive waste dumps that are at risk of failing in the long term, alongside final voids that are predicted to drain adjoining groundwater permanently.

The Adani mine is the just one of the nine proposed new 'mega' coal mines in the Galilee Basin, the last remaining major coal province yet to be developed in Queensland.