Another poignant – and timely – post from Janice. Thank you so much.
Open Cuts: Tearing the heart out of the Upper Hunter
Of her book Rich Land – Waste Land (published by Pan Macmillan, Australia), Sharyn Munro says:
I am talking of an invasion of our country, a taking over of land and clearing out of people.
… and
I mean this literally.
Sharon Munro’s account, exploring the real costs to the land we love and call home, is worrying and distressing. She paints a vivid picture of everyday Australians battling to defend their land and rights against the might of the corporate giants, often in the face of devastating personal consequences, shattered health and displaced lives.
A little more than 20 years ago the Upper Hunter was a beautiful rural valley where a few small mines and a couple of power stations co-existed with vineyards, horse studs and dairy farms. Suddenly, insidiously, the number of mines increased six-fold and grew bigger as they were bought out by international companies which imported bigger machines for higher production and profits. Then they began to merge and run feral across the Upper Hunter.
Export dollars was the driver, Big Business and Governments the enablers.
If you understand that one new mine will create disturbance over 2,000 hectares, then you can imagine the impact four or five of these open-cuts has on a small community/town in close proximity. The open-cuts, a hundred meters or so deep, surrounded by mountains of overburden, run across the landscape like gaping sores, belching millions of tonnes of toxic dust particles that are harmful, if not fatal, to human life.
Muswellbrook has become an island in the middle of the open-cut mines. Overburden mountains have risen up all around the town and the life has been squeezed out of it. Muswellbrook people were promised there would be jobs for locals and largesse provided by the mining companies. Of course, it was too late when it was realised that any ‘local’ jobs would be mostly for those who had such skills as the mines needed – plumbers, electricians, boilermakers, mechanics etc. etc. In a year or two the citizens of Muswellbrook and its surrounds discovered they only had plumbing and electrical servicemen on a part time basis because they’d all been enticed to the mines for higher pay packets.
Today the town has dozens of vacant shops and if it weren’t for the passing highway traffic, you could roll a bomb down the main street and not hit anyone. Shoppers keep to one or the other of two large shopping complexes, do their shopping, and go home. There is now no incentive to linger. People who live in Muswellbrook complain of the layers of filthy coal dust that seeps into their homes and covers their verandahs, patios and garden plants.
Wybong, 20 kms to the west of Muswellbrook, was a small farming community. A scenic bit of country known as the Ark of the Hunter for its biodiversity treasures, there were many people who tried to stop Centennial Coal from going ahead with the Anvil Hill mine and in 2004 they won a Federal Envirofund Grant for ecological studies which found more than 30 threatened flora and fauna species.
In 2006 an unprecedentedly diverse group – farmers, newer locals on small rural blocks, winemakers, tourism operators, Greenpeace, climate change activists, climate-concerned city and country folk, and academics – joined forces to stop the mining of Anvil Hill. It was the first major fight against King Coal.
Hundreds of people arrived to camp on private land within the exploration lease. They walked out to a paddock and lay down to form a human sign – “Save Anvil Hill” – and were photographed from a helicopter. In response, NSW Minerals Council CEO Nikki Williams wrote an open letter to Sydney papers attacking “publicity stunts by a handful of activists” and claiming that “shutting down coal production” would “destroy NSW’s economy”.
In December 2006, a young activist named Peter Gray won an historic victory in the Land and Environment Court against Planning’s acceptance of the “flawed and invalid” environmental assessment for Anvil Hill.
But it didn’t matter what anyone did or said, because in June 2007, Planning Minister Frank Sartor approved Anvil Hill. Centennial Coal sold the project to Xstrata who renamed it Xstrata Mangoola to get rid of the taint of opposition, and let it sit awhile as the Anvil Hill Protest Group was bankrupted by its court cases against Centennial. The protesters won, yet still lost because the NSW (Labor) Government gave the green light anyway. Wybong is now a totally depressing place for the many kilometres Xstrata has fenced.
Ten kilometres to the south of Wybong is the small town of Denman, the people of which believed the claims that the mine would bring more jobs and business. They were soon to realise that this was an illusion of huge proportions. What happened is it removed many small landowners and their custom, and the mine does not buy locally. There were no new jobs, Instead, the mine stripped the town of its tradespeople as they took advantage of the higher wages offered. As happened in Muswellbrook, Denman’s agricultural store is struggling to survive as the mines swallow up the farms. In Muswellbrook four irrigation and farm machinery companies closed their doors and as I write, there are four new mines proposed on the western side of Denman. If these go ahead, Denman will lose farms, vineyards and wineries, and the jobs associated with these rural businesses – and the town of Denman will shrink further.
Upper Hunter winemakers are vehemently opposed to the march of King Coal and Bob Oately, who owned the very successful Rosemount winery, spent big dollars as he joined with other concerned people to stop the Bengalla Mine – a stone’s throw from the centre of Muswellbrook. The mine was also a stone’s throw from one of Bob’s best vineyards at Edenglassie on Muswellbrook Road and his Roxburgh Vineyard a kilometre away as the crow flies. The fight went all the way to the High Court and they won. But, as happened at Wybong, Bob Carr’s Labor Government simply shifted the goal posts and the mine was approved.
Bengalla Mine is smack bang in the middle of fertile river flats. When the Carr Government gave the green light for Bengalla to proceed despite the High Court ruling in favour of the protesting group, it meant that King Coal had the door opened wide to dig up the rest of the area. In a very short period of time the Mt. Arthur Mine got underway on the eastern side of Muswellbrook Road so that, together with Bengalla, the pollution spelt the demise of the Oatley vineyards.
Bob Oatley’s two best vineyards were impacted by the pollution and became unviable. Rosemount winery at Denman was the town’s biggest employer and was a popular tourist attraction that was all lost because there is nothing ordinary people can do to save their livelihoods or property from these marauding corporate giants who wield the power to overrun and swallow up the land and its people.
The open-cuts are quickly marching south and spreading east and west, swallowing up all in their path and landholders are in a constant state of fear for their livelihoods and their health. They fear for their water as much as for their environment as coal seam gas also threatens wineries and tourism. Coalmine dust risks heavy metal contamination of the water, the soil and the air but there is nothing the people can do stop the corporate giants.
The corporate giants are nothing but kleptocrats – not only do they steal get our minerals at an absurdly low price, they also steal the land and the water that sustain us.
THE PUB 
jaycee! Norty! (but very funny)
eleanor bloom @eleanorbloom
‘Foxtel, a joint venture between News Ltd and Telstra, is currently exempt from rules restricting media ownership.’ – @FinancialReview.
On the food theme – the opposition is like those plastic replicas of food the Japanese use in their restaurant displays. They look OK, they lure you in, they persuade you to buy but what you are given to eat turns out to be nothing like the alluring display. You realise, too late, that you have been conned.
Good morning all.
SK , Added my vote.
The small town of Denman is still fighting the good fight.
http://www.communityrun.org/petitions/keep-denman-coal-mine-free
Malcolm Turnbull is an air head.
janice
This part is interesting….
[The Yarrawa Lease is the subject of ICAC investigations related to the way mining exploration leases were granted in a closed tender process. Residents affected by the mine want to have their say at the ICAC investigation]
I can see why the BOF govt would want to shut down the ICAC investigation.
It would be much appreciated if you would sign the petition contained in that link. Thanks in advance.
SK, thakns for that :ghrin:
Cheers 😀 😎
janice
Done
Wow, talk about typos 😳
Take 2
SK, thanks for that 😀
Cheers 😀 😎
Victoria,
I’m not holding my breath re the ICAC investigation. However, in all honesty I cannot blame Boofhead O’Farrel since it was the Car Govt that enabled these rampaging mining companies to run rampant and uncontrolled across the Hunter. All in the name of revenue dollars.
I’m afraid I haven’t been a fan of Bob Carr since he and his govt gave the green light to both Bengalla and Anvil Hill after so many people went bankrupt taking our concerns right through to the High Court and won.
janice
BOF is merely continuing the tradition.
Morning Truth Seeker,
I’ve awarded you ten stars for each and every piece on your blog site. Sorry I haven’t found the time as yet to put these accolades on the site – be assured though I remain a loyal fan. Cheers
Victoria,
It is what you expect from the LNP . It is not what I expected from Labor and as long as I live I will never forgive Car.
Morning all.
Andrew Elder @awelder Protected account
Peter Hartcher’s sad yearning for Rudd reminds me of gamblers who keep punting hoping to recover their losses. #ausmedia #journofail
It’s beyond pathetic now – it’s Grattanesque. He really needs to find something else to write about.
confessions
Have you read Elder’s latest?
janice
I’ve never been a fan of Bob Carr either. I had grave doubts when he was dragged into the senate.
The Carr government was hand in glove with developers up here in Port Macquarie. A lot of the financial woes our council is facing now go back to Carr’s willing compliance and canoodling with a certain National Party aligned property developer. Carr even stayed at this bloke’s riverside estate when he came up to visit. A couple of concerned and honest councillors made complaints to ICAC about this bloke’s many illegal and corrupt activities. They were brushed off with ‘nothing to see here, all perfectly OK’ comments. Other locals also expressed concerns to Carr’s government and had them either ignored or fobbed of with weak excuses.
Carr then bailed out when his government began to look very rotten, leaving others to deal with his mess. I have no time for the man.
Janice, thanks for your kind words and support, it means a great deal 😀 😎
Cheers 😀 😎
“@abcnewsSydney: BREAKING @ABCNorthCoast: #Metgasco announces suspension of its Clarence Moreton exploration and development program. #CSG”
victoria:
Yes I have. Depressing is one word for it.
leonetwo,
It is only the fact that Carr is a Labor bloke (and didn’t do the usual dissing of the Party as soon as he got out) that, while I can never forgive him I am able to ignore his presence in this government.
When all is said and done, he used to be a journalist ….? Not a profession I’m enamoured with.
“@latikambourke: Labor MP Rob Mitchell on protestors calling the PM a ‘liar’ in #qt yesterday: ‘this culture that Abbott’s created is coming back to bite.’”
“@latikambourke: Labor MP Rob Mitchell – the protestors were ‘whipped up by coalition MP’s beforehand…they were right behind it.’”
confessions
Indeed. I relied on Elder for hope.
“@latikambourke: Labor MP Rob Mitchell says the ‘smirks and giggles’ on the faces of Opposition MPs is evidence they were enjoying the protestor’s comments.”
“@latikambourke: Labor MP Rob Mitchell sees nothing wrong with Steve Gibbons tweets – Christopher Pyne was having a ‘hissy fit’ you expect of him. #qt”
victoria:
Andrew Elder @awelder Protected account
@Malcolm4Leader Loyalty and internal support is his Achilles heel. Come 15/9 with Gillard re-elected, the Liberal Party is pretty much his
For those interested in Sharkgate, the Cronulla Sharks’ Chairman has just resigned.
Good morning all.
I have just opened doors and windows downstairs, and cool air is streaming through the house. Bliss!
Now, to catch up on comments …
This is a beauty
https://mobile.twitter.com/Schtang/status/311618365397557249/photo/1
Victoria,
Pure gold 😀
perth is lovely. i have a free day today. might go to the Mint.
Judging by media reaction to Conroy’s media reform, it must be much better than it looks 🙂 After all, we gotta protect ‘freedom of speech’ don’t we? Can’t have them nasty Labor types scattering tacks under our wheels.
Lord Har-Har, Pinstripe Pete, is on the warpath again today:
Just who awaits the next Nielsen poll? It would be the bloke who wrote this, about a month ago on February 17th, would it?
Or this…
So it seems that the February Nielsen poll and the Newspoll of around the same time are correct, but the latest Newspoll is just a rogue, within MOE, so no biggy there.
Anyway, those who bank on polls to support their political arguments are “pathetic”.
Yes, Lord Har-Har, they are.
BB
Lord Har Har is beyond redemption. Just a plain embarrassment
i voted in the poll- when I did it was 51% thought theyd be worse off under an Abbott Govt and 11% ( from memory ) undecided.
Sent Allanah another email saying that she was doing Tony Abbott’s work- after Darren Chester’s faux outrage and Tony Abbott’s smirking response that the only ones making comments about the PM were on her sied of politics.
The ploy of sympathy from a National became clear.
Catalyst
Point well made. Hopefully Allanah will take stock, and come to the realisatiion that her own action and words are damaging the Labor brand.
SK & Janice,
I voted in the poll and signed the petition. I also added the link to your post, Janice. Tried to do the picture from it as well – but couldn’t increase the size without things going all blurry.
SK,
Thanks for the link @6:49
I don’t read the smh much these days so I would have missed that article and poll. The article reads like a calming “don’t worry, we can change government” piece, but I think because Fairfax has given up its centrist position in recent times it has the opposite effect. And most of the comments seem to back that up. It is clear (and with good reason) that people see Fairfax as becoming more and more of a RW tabloid rag.
The article brushes over a few issues, most notably the NBN. Anybody, like me, who lives in a metro area and uses ADSL will not see any improvement in their internet service apart from a few who are a long way from their exchange. I have been getting 16mbps for almost a decade now and for all Turnbull spends that won’t change under his plan. The same is true for the bulk of metro users on ADSL.
The poll is currently running at
Better off under Abbott: 37
Worse off: 51
Same: 12
18,665 votes
Thanks all who voted – every little bit helps!
Don’t worry, Victoria, Andrew Elder on twitter is holding fast to his assertion that Abbott will never be prime minister.
And yes, Matty Suckling will be a big loss to the Hawks. Best kick in footy!
Stephen Koukoulas @TheKouk
Wow! Consumer sentiment up again. Bodes very well for consumer spending and bottom line GDP. 2013 could be a strong year for the economy
Hartcher should be boned and go back to driving cabs. Who knows, one day he could be the new Rad Hadley?
He’s allowed, indeed encouraged to write the crap he writes because Fairfax have made a management decision to promote him as a top Fairfax “brand name”.
I kid youse not.
Greg Hywood said on ABC radio recently that whatever Hartcher wants to write will be published, because it will inevitably be of high quality, as distinguished from the rubbish “tabloid” papers put out.
But today’s effort is special. He accuses Labor of hanging off individual polls. Says that’s “pathetic”, yet was prepared to declare that a single Nielsen “reversed the trend” to Labor of late last year, setting off a bootstrap campaign among the dregs and ring-ins left at Fairfax to promote a caucus spill.
Just had a thought on that poll. If you have kids, family, friends get them to vote.
Good morning all, has anyone resigned from cabinenet yet? and is JG still PM? Comparing anyone to Stalin is just a tad hyperbowlic.
[…] us. Much closer to home, Sharyn Munro’s heartfelt description of how open cut coal mines are tearing the heart out of the upper Hunter Valley in New South Wales beautifully captures not only the environmental vandalism of the current ‘resources […]
Fair’s fair and all that… just completing the set…
Space Kidette @SpaceKidette
Ermagerd!!! VIC GOVT IN CRISIS RT @abcnews Victorian Premier Denis Napthine announces new cabinet line-up http://bit.ly/10D81tG #mediafail
Jack Hawks
Glad to know that Elder is holding firm. He is the lone voice in the wildnerness!!
BB
Very norty
Emargerd ndeed!!! The govt in crisis!!!
Space Kidette @SpaceKidette
Can anyone remember a time when the opinion of Murdoch’s minions did not match that of the Coalition? #mediafail #auspol
6 mins peter mott peter mott @fairerfields
@SpaceKidette When Turnball was set to agree on climate change legislation. They fixed that quickly .
Reply to @fairerfields
32 secs Space Kidette Space Kidette @SpaceKidette
@fairerfields YES! Priceless!