THE ball is rolling on the sale of farmland owned by Cobbora Holding Company (CHC) but affected farmers still don’t have the information they need to plan for their future.
The company, established by the former Labor government, purchased 156 properties in the Cobbora area to establish an open-cut thermal coal mine. Some of this land was leased back to local farmers, but in November, the mine plan was scrapped and NSW Treasury announced the land would be re-sold for agricultural purposes.
At the time of the announcement, NSW Treasury wrote to each lessee and licence holder to inform them of the decision but some farmers didn’t receive this correspondence. None of them had received further information.
“We haven’t been notified when or how they’ll sell the land,” said Nigel Roberts, whose family leased back their property “Dunbogan” after it was sold to CHC. “It’s difficult for us to make business decisions without this information.
“We’re wondering whether we should be sowing perennial pastures or whether we should wait to see what happens. It is making it tough, that’s for sure.”
Some lessees and licensees signed contracts to farm land for five years. The government has said the terms and conditions of those contracts would be honoured but affected farmers told The Land they wanted written confirmation.
NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian said Treasury was awaiting a report which would inform the sale strategy.
The Land understands the report, by independent consultants, will be lodged with Treasury this month but Mrs Berejiklian said this would occur “later this year”.
“Following (the lodgment) it is expected the land sales will be open to the market, meaning that former landowners, current lessees and current licensees are likely to have an opportunity to participate,” Mrs Berejiklian said.
NSW Treasury said CHC would continue to keep landholders up to date as the government moved forward with the process.
Warrumbungle Shire Council mayor Peter Shinton was pleased to contribute to the report.
He told the consultants he wanted a number of small parcels of land included in the sale. The land is currently aggregated in 13 large parcels.
Mr Shinton had also approached the Department of Planning and Environment about the matter.
“We’d like as many people as possible to return to the land,” Mr Shinton said.
More than 90 families have left the Dunedoo area since CHC acquired the land, hurting local schools and businesses.
