Lock the Gate says previous decisions not factored in to recommendation allowing 250ha of endangered area to be cleared

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Coalmining companies were given approval to clear nearly 10% of what is now a critically endangered forest in the New South Wales Hunter Valley over the past decade, according to evidence before a government commission.



It has prompted calls for politicians and bureaucrats to place greater weight on cumulative damage before giving developments the green light.

Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest and woodland was listed as critically endangered in 2015 after it was found 70% had been lost and what remained was highly fragmented. A federal government assessment found the area was vital habitat for 11 nationally threatened species including the regent honeyeater, brush-tailed rock wallaby and spotted-tail quoll, and important to the health and wellbeing of local residents.

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The Lock the Gate Alliance is contesting a state planning department recommendation to allow mine operators Glencore and Peabody Energy to clear 250 hectares of the endangered area to allow two existing coalmines to become one open-cut mine.

The alliance says assessment of what is known as the United Wambo open-cut mine did not properly factor in the cumulative impact of nine previous decisions to allow miners to clear 3,109ha of lowland forest – about 9% of what remained.

Two of the approvals, allowing the clearance of more than 600ha, have been made since the habitat was listed as critically endangered.

Speaking before a planning assessment commission hearing on Thursday, Lock the Gate’s state coordinator, Georgina Woods, said the federal government had warned the habitat could be extinct in 40 to 60 years.

“This is a scandal,” she said. “The planning department never says the impact of a coalmine in this area is so great it should not go ahead. The result is towns are being depopulated, bush bulldozed and the alluvial aquifer drawn down 10m.

“The Hunter region has lost too much of its bushland already. Promises of rehabilitation decades into the future cannot compensate for clearing wildlife habitat now.”

A biodiversity project coordinator for Birdlife Australia, Mick Roderick, said woodland birds relied on fertile valley floor forest for habitat but, in the central Hunter Valley, it was almost all gone. He said the state’s land and environment court had ruled that planning decisions needed to take cumulative impacts into account but it was not always happening.

“Each of these mines are assessed in isolation,” he said. “It is no surprise when there is a conclusion that one mine may not have a significant impact but, when you take into account the cumulative impacts, they are profound.”

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A planning department spokesperson said it was expected the issues raised by Lock the Gate would be included in the commission’s review of the project and considered as part of a second assessment.

“Our department looked closely at the issues of clearing, rehabilitation and offsets under approved NSW government biodiversity policies during our preliminary assessment of the project. These issues will undergo additional assessment following the independent commission’s review report.”

Environment groups under the Places You Love Alliance banner are campaigning for new national environment laws and the creation of an independent agency with watchdog powers to oversee them, arguing the ability to win environment protection is shrinking.

Environmental lawyers and academics have released a blueprint for new laws, warning that short-term politics is infecting decision-making and the public needs to be given a greater say on development plans.