In the fifth day of escalating protest at Leard Forest in north west NSW, protestors seeking to protect the forest from being cleared for an open-cut coal mine have again blockaded the entrance to the construction site for the mine, preventing a water tanker from accessing the site.
A woman is attached to the gate that provides access to the site for water tankers carrying thousands of litres of water onto the construction site to build a road through the forest and begin work on the mine.
Susie Russell, spokesperson for the Leard Forest Alliance said, “Construction and operation of this mine will use high security water from the Namoi River. We've already seen hundreds of thousands of litres of water go into this site and this morning we’ve stopped a water tanker taking precious water into the area to be used to build this mine.”
“Is it Australia’s priority to use our precious water for the death of a forest, or for the life of the land? It’s time to choose.”