A full house spilled out onto the street at Denman Memorial Hall yesterday as the controversial Drayton South coalmine project was put back on the agenda during a sometimes-emotional public hearing.
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Nearly 50 individuals and groups addressed the NSW Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC), with the majority coming from opposing thoroughbred and mining industries.
The issue is up for debate for a second time after the PAC initially rejected an application from the mine’s owner, Anglo American, last December.
The commission rejected the planned extension based upon the negative impact mining would have on the Darley (Woodlands) and Coolmore thoroughbred studs.
The rejection was just the second mining project to be denied in the Upper Hunter following the PAC review of the Bickham coal mine, near Murrurundi, in 2010.
In April this year Anglo American submitted a retracted mine plan, with the life of the mine reduced from 27 years to 20 and the mining area from 119 to 97 million tonnes.
Drayton South project director Rick Fairhurst said he was confident the retracted plan, which the Department of Planning and Environment recommended be approved in July, had addressed the PAC’s concerns.
“We think we’ve put up a mine plan that is a significant compromise from where we were previously,” he said.
“The mine will not be seen from the horse studs from where they primarily operate and air quality, noise, blasting - all the normal things that mines do - have less of an impact than the previous plan we put forward.”
Mr Fairhurst suggested that the retracted plan could allow both the mining and thoroughbred industries to operate.
“It’s always been our view that it’s a co-existent position which we’re taking, because we do need a diversified industry base here in the Hunter Valley,” he said.
“Mining and horse breeding have been here for a long time, to date, and we believe that it can continue that way into the future.
“It’s never been our position that we wanted to do anything that would cause harm to their industry.”
But Darley managing director Henry Plumptre refuted Mr Fairhurst’s assertion, and expressed his concern at the proposed mine’s proximity to his stud.
“The only other region in the world where there is coalmining in the same state is Kentucky (in the United States) - it’s 70 kilometres away,” he said.
“The closest mines to us are Mount Arthur and Drayton North which are seven and eight kilometres away, and we can live with that.
“But half a kilometre is unacceptable given what we’re trying to produce, and given what we’re trying to sell to the world.
“You cannot have a mine half a kilometre away from a major breeding facility.”
The hall was split evenly between those in favour of the expansion and those against, and there was a marked contrast between the orange, high-visibility workwear of the miners and the black racing jackets of the stud employees.
Ross Bailey, an employee of Drayton, spoke of his fears of “no life” for the industry if South Drayton didn’t go ahead as did Justin Hollis, who was concerned about planning for his future with uncertainty around his job.
Robert Monteath, of surveying firm Monteath & Powys, emphasised that mining was vital to Hunter sustaining its current way of life.
On the other side, breeder Segenhoe’s general manager Peter O’Brien described the “sword of Damocles” that would hang over the Hunter’s breeding industry should Drayton South go ahead.
Upper Hunter Winemakers Association president Brett Keeping said the breeding industry had reached a “tipping point” that could be now be pushed over the edge.
Of yesterday’s speakers Independent candidate for the state seat of Upper Hunter, Lee Watts, spoke strongly of her support for the Drayton South expansion to go ahead.
She criticised the position of the Darley and Coolmore studs to oppose the expansion after purchasing land next to a fully functioning coal mine.
“For the horse studs to now run a campaign, stating they can no longer co-exist, is a bit like moving in beside an airport and demanding the airport close; it’s not reasonable,” she said.
“The factionalism and at-any-cost-campaign style is also unreasonable.
“The campaign by the horse studs has become an anti-mining campaign and the local community has become a casualty.”
Mr Plumptre slammed Ms Watts’ suggestion.
“Saying we bought next to an airport and want to shut the airport down is absolutely irrelevant,” he said.
“The point that she is missing completely is that the thoroughbred industry has been operating for 50 years.
“Businesses do change hands, so to say that we bought into an industry next to an airport and are now asking the planes not to fly over us has no relevance whatsoever.
“What is more important in dealing with that licence that she didn’t say is that when that licence was applied it was applied in an area that was emerging as an international leader in the thoroughbred industry.
“In 1998 when the licence went onto Drayton South it was already an international leader around the world...the international community had already woken up to what we had.”
Mr Plumptre said that a ruling in favour of Anglo American would mark the “beginning of the end” of the Hunter Valley’s thoroughbred industry as a world leader.
The former Director General of the Local Government department, Garry Payne, chaired the Drayton South hearing, along with geologist and environmental scientist David Johnson and planner Gordon Kirby.
A PAC spokesperson was yesterday unable to provide a timeframe of when a decision would be reached, but said decisions “generally” were reached in six to eight weeks.