You can help drought affected farmers in North West NSW to stop one of the 11 new and expanding coal mines in NSW that together are bigger than Adani’s mega-mine in Queensland.
Lodge your objection to the Vickery coal mine extension, near Boggabri, by 5pm, Friday 10 July, 2020.
The mine will be located close to the property and homestead “Kurumbede” which was the inspiration for several Dorothea Mackellar poems including the famous ‘My Country’ which starts ‘I love a sunburnt country’.
Please take action to support local farmers standing up to save this sunburnt country.
The mine is proposed by Whitehaven Coal and the people of Boggabri have learned from experience at Werris Creek and Maules Creek that Whitehaven does not keep promises.
Whitehaven has left rural communities shattered and landholders struggling when groundwater bores have run completely dry adjoining Whitehaven coal mines and they have refused to accept responsibility.
Make sure you say that you object to the mine. Here are some points you might like to raise:
- Whitehaven already has an approval for a mine at the site, but with this project the company wants to more than double the volume of coal it mines every year, to 10 million tonnes. The infrastructure the company is proposing has larger capacity than the proposed mine, and farmers know from bitter experience that coal mines tend to grow…
- The company proposes a new rail crossing over the Namoi River and floodplain and a new large coal handling facility that can process coal from other mines in the region.
- Thanks to the efforts of farmers fighting the mine, Whitehaven was forced to move its pits a little further away from the Namoi River, but the pits now come close to the edge of the Namoi’s alluvial aquifer, the productive groundwater that underlies the river, and feeds it. The pits will induce leakage from the alluvial aquifer and the Namoi River itself.
- People in the small community of Boggabri believe the community cannot handle a fifth mine in close proximity to the town. They’re concerned that the scale is too large for the town to cope with.
- The mine will be located close to the historically significant property and homestead “Kurumbede” which was the inspiration for several Dorothea Mackellar poems including the famous “My Country.” One outbuilding at Kurumbede will be destroyed by mining and the homestead could suffer from the vibration of blasting and the loss of scenic value and quietude.
- The area adjacent to the proposed mine is strategic agricultural land and the impacts of dust and noise will make this land unliveable and likely impact the quality of crops grown there.
- Already, 76 family farms have been purchased by Whitehaven in close proximity to the town of Boggabri. This has hollowed out the township, affected local businesses and rent the social fabric of the district. This proposal will mean more rural properties bought up because of air and noise pollution, irreversibly changing Boggabri.