These satellite images show how surface mining has changed the Australian landscape.

Even the smallest of these images is several kilometres wide.

There are many more surface mines than those show here, but recent satellite imagery is not been available for all of them. Some images below are composite images.

Tonight's episode of Insight at 8.30pm on SBS One explores what happens to a farming community when a mine comes to town.

The show brings together stakeholders, residents and farmers around Queensland's New Acland open cut coal mine, which has been in operation since 2002, but a long-running push for expansion has faced opposition.

Daunia

Where: South West of Mackay, Qld (-22.046, 148.287)

Commodity mined: Coal

Company: BHP Billiton Mistabishi Alliance (BMA)

Size: These pictures are roughly 13.5 km wide and 11 km high.

Hope Downs

Where: North western WA (-22.9483, 119.1122)

Commodity mined: Iron ore

Companies: Hancock Prospecting and Rio Tinto

Size: These pictures are roughly 8 km wide and 6.5 km high.

Mangoola

Where: Near Denman, NSW (-32.3, 150.67)

Commodity mined: Coal

Company: GlencoreXstrata

Size: These pictures are roughly 6 km wide and 5 km high.

Western Turner Syncline

Where: North western WA (-22.662, 117.586)

Commodity mined: Hematite

Company: Rio Tinto

Size: These pictures are roughly 2.5 km wide and 2 km high.