Glencore currently operate a complex of coal mines around Mount Owen in the Hunter Valley. The Glendell open cut mine, about 20km northwest of Singleton, is part of this complex, and has been in operation since 2008.
The Glendell expansion project would involve Glencore continuing mining for an additional 21 years to 2044, extracting a further 135 million tonnes of coal destined to be burnt for power and to make steel.
In October 2022 the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) made the decision to reject Glencore’s Glendell coal mine expansion project due to its “significant, irreversible and unjustified impacts on the historic heritage values of the Ravensworth Homestead complex”. The Commission found “that because of these impacts, the site is not suitable for development and the application is not in the public interest” and also concluded that the project would “harm Aboriginal cultural values."
Even though the expansion was rejected by the IPC there has still been no formal protection for the site under NSW Heritage laws. We are working with allies to ensure that there is NSW heritage listing for the entire Ravensworth estate complex.
One of the most serious impacts of the Glendell expansion would be the destruction of the cultural heritage of the Ravensworth homestead and surrounding estate.
The homestead and estate hold significant cultural and historical value as a site of resistance to colonisation by local Aboriginal peoples, and due to associations with the murders of Aboriginal people at the hands of settlers.
Image: Ravensworth Homestead
The Plains Clan of the Wonnarua People lodged an application under Commonwealth Aboriginal heritage legislation to have the area protected.
The Heritage Council has stated that Glencore’s proposal to relocate the homestead ‘will result in the irreversible loss of its state significance in the form of its significantly intact fabric, archaeology, Aboriginal and colonial landscape setting and views’.
In addition to the destruction of a culturally significant site, the Glendell expansion would: