UPDATE: Protestors at Whitehaven’s Maules Creek mine have been ordered to vacate the Leard State Forest, where construction on the mine has commenced.
NSW Forestry Corporation has prohibited access to the forest for the remainder of the bushfire season.
NSWFC said it is responding to concerns raised by Police and the Rural Fire Service for the safety.
“The closures follow consideration of a range of concerns raised by Police and the local RFS relating to people occupying the forest area.
“These included the increased fire risk posed by a large group of people in the forest and obstruction of forest roads required for emergency access.
“The fire hazard in the area is particularly concerning as a result of low rainfall recently and high temperatures. We can’t take risks when it comes to safety,” NSWFC said in a statement.
Protestors believe the move was motivated by sympathy for Whitehaven and argue their camp is located on an access road, not Forestry land.
“They have effectively handed over this important public forest, Leard State Forest, to the coal miners, and now they are trying to lock the public out so that the destruction of this priceless environmental area can go on unobserved" said Phil Spark, spokesperson with the Northern Inland Council for the Environment.
"The Forestry Corporation gave us an ultimatum to pack up the long-standing protest camp this morning within 12 hours, but we have since confirmed that we are not on State Forest land and they have no power to evict us.”
The blockade was established on an access road to the forest in an effort to prevent felling of trees during construction of the mine.
Rick Leard, a fifth generation farmer from Maules Creek is part of the protest movement.
“It will clearfell a large area of Leard State Forest, including nationally critically endangered woodland and endangered wildlife habitat,” he said.
Traditional owner Elder Uncle Dick Talbot said, “Leard forest holds many significant sites for us.
"Whitehaven Coal have completely ignored our pending legal request for an order to stop work to protect our cultural sites.
“I will fight on to save my culture until my last breath. Claims that we are a minority are disrespectful to senior elders and traditional owners, and we would like an apology.”
A Whitehaven spokesman said the argument that forest is irreplaceable and unique does not “stand up to serious scrutiny. The fact is that the Leard State Forest has been logged by private contractors to the NSW State Government for decades.
“The Forest was the subject of a detailed assessment in the 1990s… (which) led to the Brigalow-Nandewar Western Regional Assessment and the Brigalow and Nandewar Community Conservation Act 2005 which created about 350,000 hectares of new conservation reserves for the region.
“Under this Act, the Leard State Forest was specifically zoned for forestry and mining.”
