Activists blockade heavy vehicles sent to Maules Creek site to build roads and a rail line

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Protesters have locked themselves on to bulldozers as they fight the development of the controversial Maules Creek coalmine in north-west New South Wales.

About 30 activists, including local Indigenous community members, on Monday blockaded heavy vehicles which are at the Boggabri site to build roads and a rail line, Georgina Woods from the Leard Forest Alliance said.

If the road to Whitehaven Coal's proposed $767m open-cut mine is cut through the forest then animals, plants and sacred Aboriginal sites would be lost, she said.

And while admitting that stopping the project was “a bit of a long shot’’, Woods said the protesters, stationed throughout the large forest, would not be leaving anytime soon.

"It's our intention to remain here the rest of the week and until this forest gets a reprieve and it's protected from this coalmine," she said.

About 20 police were at Monday's protest.

"Police rescue have gone in. They will be trying to remove our protesters," Woods said.

"But we think they're set up in a way that they won't be able to be removed quickly."

Protesters blockaded the site in December after the federal court dismissed an application by the Northern Inland Council for the Environment, which had called for the approval granted by the former environment minister Tony Burke to be overturned.

Police cut the activists free before arresting them.

Whitehaven has previously said the project would create 800-plus jobs and enjoyed support from most local residents.