The NSW Government has said they intend to push for a final decision on the dangerous Narrabri CSG project in north-west NSW early next year. 

If approved, it could open the floodgates and unleash gasfields across southern Australia, undoing all the success of our amazing movement over the last 10 years.

Can you help us stop this project, get the expert advice that is needed and push to get permanent protection for this recharge zone of the Great Artesian Basin?

Adults $38.50, Kids are Free

Origin Energy are lining up to frack the Northern Territory this year, and in the firing line are some magical places, including recharge zones of Mataranka Hot Springs.

Traditional Owners have told us that Origin Energy has ignored their concerns about fracking and not properly laid out the risks involved.

We need to build a powerful movement of people willing to spread the word and take on Origin at every level, from their head offices to their board rooms.

This week coal mining giant Whitehaven spent $700,000 buying up some of the only water available for drought stricken farmers.

They paid triple the price that local farmers could afford to pay.

Chip in today to expose the outrageous double standard which sees our few remaining water resources going to wash dirty coal.

Let’s build on the momentum that we’ve grown right across Australia in 2018, and stop this terrible misuse of our water for coal and gas mining.

Help us get this ad on TV!

Hunter Valley farmer Wendy Bowman has been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her extraordinary success in protecting her farm from being open cut for coal mining.

Will you help us amplify Wendy's win and shine a spotlight on the damage coal mining is doing to the Hunter Valley?

Wendy was forced to leave her land once due to a coal mine, but when they tried a second time on her next farm she stood her ground.

She has beaten a coal mining company in court, and now we need to change the law so no more Australian farmers are forced to move for coal mining.

Write a message to Australian politicians telling them to stop letting coal companies buy-up huge areas of farmland. In the Singleton Shire where Wendy farms, coal companies own 15% of all freehold land and 27% of all mapped strategic agricultural land.

When the government grants approval for a mine, they let them pollute the landscape with noise and air far beyond their own boundaries, forcing local people to sell up and leave. Wendy Bowman has stood her ground - support her courage today and help other Hunter farmers under threat.

Please chip in to support the legal appeal on the Acland Stage 3 coal mine on the Darling Downs.

Last year, the Land Court found recommended against the mine because the impacts on groundwater would be too severe and the noise and dust impacts too great.  You can read a short summary of the Land Court decision here. Then earlier this year, the Queensland environment department rejected an Environmental Authority for the mine. 

But New Hope Coal appealed the Land Court decision, and the Supreme Court found in their favour, ruling that the Land Court did not have the jurisdiction to reject the mine on groundwater grounds.

That represents a major change in legal interpretation which will also mean groundwater can not be considered by the Land Court in future legal cases against coal mines.  

However, local farmers have now lodged their own appeal to the Supreme Court decision, in a bid to stop this damaging project once and for all.

This legal challenge is the final hurdle. If the farmers succeed, then the project will be finished. Please chip in to help them get it across the line. It's a fight for the Great Artesian Basin and the right to protect groundwater statewide - and we can't afford to lose.

Bylong Valley and Tarwyn Park

The Bylong Valley is a place of extraordinary scenic beauty and heritage significance. The Bylong Valley Way follows the Goulburn River past dramatic sandstone escarpments to Bylong. Tarwyn Park, the home of Natural Sequence Farming is now owned by a coal mining company and the fight is on to protect it. The coal mine proposed at Bylong would dramatically deplete water resources in the Valley and change this productive agricultural district forever.

Wendy Bowman, the "Hero of Camberwell"

Wendy has been fighting coal mines for nearly 30 years and was a founding member of Hunter Minewatch. Wendy’s first property on Bowman’s Creek was a successful dairy farm until underground mining cracked the creek and removed her water supply.

Wollar

The village of Wollar was declared in March 1885 and was a thriving rural village, until Wilpinjong coal mine started up ten years ago. The heart of Wollar has been eaten away with noise and pollution from Wilpinjong driving people away, and most of the land and the village purchased by American energy company Peabody Energy which owns the mine. The community of Wollar has been decimated.

Bulga

Bulga already cops the dust and noise from three of the Hunter’s huge open coal mines. For six years, residents of the village struggled to save their town from the expansion of Rio Tinto's Warkworth coal mine. They challenged the Government’s approval But Rio Tinto and the NSW Government joined forces against them. They changed laws and regulations. They re-submitted the mine proposal and rolled over all the objections to approve it, taking away the community’s right to appeal the decision in court.

Make Coal Giants Pay for Mine Clean-Up

Our new report – Abandoned Mines in Queensland: Toxic Time-bomb or Employment Opportunity? – calls for big mining companies to cover the cost of rehabilitating the State’s abandoned mines and estimates that this would generate 6000 jobs in regional Queensland!

There are too many large abandoned mines, and the full cost of cleaning them up is too large and should not fall on taxpayers. If mines are levied to pay for the clean up, they can also create jobs in the process.

Why should we miss out on hundreds of schools and hospitals because we’re footing the bill for the mess left behind by irresponsible mining companies?

References:

• Dodging clean up costs Six tricks coal mining companies play (pdf)

• Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry Report (pdf)
• ACF Mine Rehab Stories
• Abandoned Mines in Queensland Report
• NSW Coal Pit Legacy
• Mine Rehab Closure Cost Report
• Rhetoric Vs Reality. Rehab performance snapshot