UPDATED 12.30pm THE sleepy Hunter Valley town of Bulga has won its battle against big coal in the NSW Supreme Court's Court of Appeal today – but the war is not at an end.
Rio Tinto's challenge, backed by the NSW Minister for Planning Brad Hazzard, was dismissed today.
The Minister and the miner sought to overturn the Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association’s successful challenge to the approval to extend the mine.
This challenge was upheld in the NSW Land and Environment Court by Chief Judge Justice Brian Preston.
The expansion would have allowed open cut mining in the threatened Warkworth sands woodland ecosystem and towards the town itself.
Warkworth’s appeal, and the cross appeal by the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, alleged that Justice Preston made errors of law in finding that the expansion to the mine should be refused.
Rio originally gained approval for its mine expansion in from the Department of Planning in February 2012.
However, in April last year, the Court agreed with Bulga’s challenge, finding that conditions of approval were inadequate and that the project would have unsatisfactory impacts on the Bulga community and the threatened woodland.
Essentially, if the mine expansion proceeded, Warkworth would have mined in a biodiversity offset that was required to be protected by Warkworth as a condition of the existing open cut approval granted in 2003. The offset is also a buffer between the village of Bulga and the existing open cut mine.
Environmental Defenders Office principal solicitor Sue Higginson, who acted for Bulga in this matter, called it “a landmark day for the community and the law”.
“The community has worked long and hard to get environmental justice, and today the Court of Appeal has upheld that justice,” Ms Higginson said.
“The Land and Environment Court, in its first hearing, delivered a very careful decision based on an enormous amount of evidence about the pros and cons of the mine and found that the environmental impacts were far too great.
“The court of appeal has upheld that decision in this latest ruling.”
However, Bulga’s victory might not end the dispute.
Just last week, Rio resubmitted its application to expand the open cut coal mine to the Planning and Assessment Commission for fresh appraisal.
Rio said the mine extension would secure the long term future of the Warkworth mine and the jobs of more than 1300 employees and contractors.
“If the new planning applications are approved, it will allow the 30 year old integrated operation to continue operating on land it owns and within the foot print of existing mining leases until approximately the end of 2035,” the company said in a statement.
“The new proposals we are putting forward include a range of upfront measures that go above and beyond the existing comprehensive program to manage impacts from Mount Thorley Warkworth mine.
“These upfront measures include an offer to provide more than 1800 hectares of land towards a National Park, four million dollars towards a significant regeneration program for the Warkworth sands Woodlands and ironbark ecological communities, and more than one and a half million dollars for training and employment programs aimed at youth in the Upper Hunter.”
The Bulga community has vowed to battle on.
Mike Foley
Senior journalist for The Land.
Senior journalist for The Land.
