CUT THROUGH OUR HEARTLAND... #PROTECTTHEHUNTER THE IMPACTS OF COAL MINING EXPOSED. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Welcome 1 Australia’s Biggest Polluter: AGL 10 The Hunter Valley and Coal 2 Mine rehabilitation 11 The Battle for Bulga 3 A fair and rapid transition beyond coal 12 Muswellbrook: Surrounded by mines 4 Bylong Valley: A new coal frontier 13 Social damage of mining 5 Wollar Village & Peabody’s Wilpinjong Mine 15 Hero of Camberwell: Wendy Bowman 6-7 Mining Impacts on the Goulburn River 16 MAP 8-9 Biodiversity offsetting: A loss for nature 17 WHAT YOU CAN DO Join the AGL campaign: visit dirtyagl.com/ 16 SEPT: MANLY LOCK THE GATE EVENT take-action/ to join 350.org’s campaign Arts Festival Feat. Reg Mombassa. 6 – 8pm. e-list and sign up to volunteer on the RSVP at http://www.lockthegate.org.au/ campaign. calendar Join a local action group: support coal 19 - 25 SEPT: FOSSIL FREE AGL affected communities by joining your local COMMUNITY ACTION PUSH group and/or volunteer for Lock the Gate. In the lead up to AGL’s AGM join with Visit: others in your community to take a photo lockthegate.org.au/ProtectTheHunter in an iconic location with a sign that says “[YOUR LOCATION] calls on AGL to go Join our 100% renewables campaign: Fossil Free!]. Contact [email protected] to http://www.nature.org.au/get-involved/ register your interest and receive further take-action/100-renewable-nsw/ details. Calendar of upcoming events 28 SEPT: AGL AGM DAILY - BULGA: Join AGL customers, shareholders and Vigil to save Wallaby Scrub Rd from Rio community members to expose the Tinto’s Warkworth mine at Bulga. https:// company’s greenwash and demand AGL www.facebook.com/standwithbulga/ come up with a plan to exit the dirty energy business within a decade. SYDNEY STOP COAL AND GAS VIGIL WHAT: a fun, family friendly action outside When: Every Friday 11:00 - 12:00 AGL’s AGM in Sydney. Where: 52 Martin Place NSW 2000 WHEN: Wednesday 28th September Time Near NSW Ministerial Offices TBC - rsvp to [email protected] and we’ll send you details closer to the day PITTWATER NANNAS AGAINST COAL WHERE: Sydney Recital Hall, 2 Angel Place, VIGIL SYDNEY When: Every Friday 12:30 - 1:30 pm Where: 1725 Pitt Water Road Mona Vale NSW 2103. Out front of Planning Minister Rob Stokes Office THE HUNTER The Hunter Valley, the land of the #ProtectTheHunter is supported by the Wonnarua Nation. Wollar Progress Association, in conjunction with Lock the Gate, 350.org and the Nature For decades the Hunter Valley has Conservation Council. To donate to support been at the forefront of the biggest the work of the Wollar Progress Association, battle our world has ever faced - how please email [email protected]. to prevent runaway climate change. As the supply region for the world’s largest coal port in Newcastle, the Hunter Valley has long borne the harsh costs of Australia’s addiction to coal. As coal mining has intensified, the impacts on the communities of Hunter, the traditional lands of the Wonnarua people, and other industries such as agriculture, wine-making and horse breeding have reached a crisis point. Yet the community is fighting back and shaping its own vision for the future of the Hunter. When you know what the locals know about big coal, what will you do? 1 THE HUNTER VALLEY AND COAL The Hunter Valley is not simply a coal Coal companies own up to 27% of prime field. It’s a rich and productive river Valley, farmland in some shires. home to horticulture, tourism, dairy and beef industries. It is one of only two Since 2011, income from coal mining has internationally recognised wine-growing fallen 32%, employment has fallen 13% and regions in Australia, and has the second royalties collected by NSW have fallen by highest concentration of racehorse studs in $300m. Over the same period, volumes of the world. coal exported have risen by 29%. But in the last ten years, coal mines have Coal is in decline, but that doesn’t mean grown so large they are threatening that the Hunter Valley is safe from further the viability of other industries and damaging mining. Thousands have lost permanently scarring its beautiful their jobs and all the while the impacts landscape. Land mapped and crucial for on air quality, water and bushland have the horse and wine industries is being intensified. targeted in the next phase of coal mine Meanwhile, plans are progressing for more expansions and leaders in those industries and more mine expansions. The industry have declared that their very future is in has 16 new mining areas proposed, jeopardy. covering a further 75,000ha of the Valley, There are 26 coal mines and mine much of it covered in remnant bushland or complexes currently operating in the farms supporting the wine, horse-breeding Hunter Valley, comprising 42 open cuts pits or beef industries. and 15 underground works and producing over 200 million tonnes of coal every year. Open cut coal mines now occupy over 30,000ha of the Hunter Valley and mining exploration leases cover a further 128,000ha. That’s 64% of the entire area of the Valley floor. 2 When you know what the locals know about big coal, what will you do? THE BATTLE FOR BULGA The village of Bulga is in a David and 2014 Goliath battle against one of the world’s Rio submits a new mining application – the coal-mining giants - Rio Tinto. Theirs is same plan rejected by the courts. a tale of undue influence, injustice and The Baird Government changes heroism. Read on for the plotted history of “biodiversity offset” laws for coal mines, one of NSW’s most notorious coal mines. and the environment department rubber 2003 stamps Rio’s plans to bulldoze the critically Rio Tinto and the Carr Government sign endangered bushland around Saddle an agreement to protect the Saddle Ridge Ridge. area near Bulga forever, as an “offset” for the The government removes Bulga’s right to latest expansion of Warkworth coal mine. challenge a new mine approval in court. This should have been the end of the story. 2015 2010 A government-commissioned report Rio renege on the deal, and put in an recommends giving Rio their mine application to expand the mine through approval, and warns that Bulga might Saddle Ridge, and close a much-used need to be “relocated” due to the mining public road: Wallaby Scrub. impacts. Bulga residents vote unanimously to fight The Baird Government gives Rio a new the mine expansion. mine approval. 2012 2016 The O’Farrell Government gives Rio their Rio Tinto wants to acquire Wallaby Scrub mine approval. Road (part of the convict built and Bulga residents challenge the approval in heritage-listed Great North Road) from the Land & Environment Court. Singleton Council. The Council has voted They win. This should have been the end of not to sell the road. To date, the Premier the story. has refused to provide an undertaking that the NSW Government will not force Council 2013 to sell the road. Rio and the O’Farrell Government appeal Will we let this be the end of the story? to the Supreme Court to reinstate the mine approval. They lose. Bulga wins. This should have been the end of the story. When you know what the locals know about big coal, what will you do? 3 MUSWELLBROOK: SURROUNDED BY MINES The township of Muswellbrook has been While Muswellbrook is now predominantly almost entirely surrounded by open cut a mining and power generation town, coal mines since the approval of the it was once the centre of a diverse and Bengalla Mine in 1996, Mt Arthur North thriving agricultural industry based on open cut in 2001 and Muswellbrook Coal the irrigated Hunter River flats. Mining open cut in 2005. Mt Arthur is the largest companies now own the majority of this coal producer in NSW with an output of land. about 16 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). The thoroughbred horse breeding industry Other existing and proposed mines to the is another large employer in Muswellbrook west of the township include the Dartbrook Shire. There has been major land use underground mine (currently not operating), conflict and severe divisions within the Mt Pleasant open cut (approved but not yet community generated by ongoing mine developed) and the large Muswellbrook West expansion proposals. proposal under assessment. The Muswellbrook economy waxes These constitute the largest new proposed and wanes with the variability of the mine expansion in the Upper Hunter. coal industry. Major restructures and The Drayton mine to the south east is due redundancies has caused an increase in to close down and has been the centre of a unemployment in the region. Attempts controversial campaign to prevent a large at diversifying through investment in mine continuation project, Drayton South. education and aged care facilities have been undertaken by the Council to try to There has been underground mining in buffer mining industry fluctuations. the Muswellbrook area since the early 1900s. Much of the mining has been for state –owned power generation. However, the scale of the current operations is vast with multiple impacts. The increased size of open cut mining for the export market has had significant environmental and social impacts. 4 When you know what the locals know about big coal, what will you do? DUST OVER MUSWELLBROOK SOCIAL DAMAGE OF MINING The fair treatment of mine workers health The damage to the Hunter River from and safety, work and pay conditions long-term mining activity and new is an ongoing issue for many mining large expansions has not been assessed communities.