Crucial documents that would have prevented a young Hunter family buying a mine subsidence-doomed block of land at Gillieston Heights were withheld by authorities for almost a decade.
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Cover-up claims have now been levelled against the Mine Subsidence Board and Maitland City Council after letters between the authorities, dating back to 1996, reveal knowledge of the shallow mine workings and a 1999 recommendation not to allow development.
The documents, brought to light last year as part of court proceedings, were not given to Andrew and Kylie Neale in their eight-year mine subsidence compensation battle despite a subpoena and several freedom of information requests.
The couple said they were furious to find out both government bodies had been aware for decades of the shallow workings in the area and nothing was done to warn them when they bought the land in 2004 or prevent them from building over the old mine workings in 2006.
“In all the time the Mine Subsidence Board fought against our compensation claim, they never once disclosed this,” Mr Neale said.
“We requested all information relevant to the area and they never produced these documents that could have ended this years ago. They are meant to help people, not put them through hell.”
A spokeswoman for the NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation said the MSB – a Hunter-based state government statutory body that administers a compensation fund paid for by coal companies – operates “in accordance with open and transparent principles”.
She said legislation imposed “clear limitations on the role and responsibilities” of the MSB in its response to subsidence cases and that it held a “very large body of information including documents that have been held over a significant period of time”.
“Searching this body of information can be very demanding on the time allocated to resources of the board if the search is broadly defined and covers an unbounded period of time,” she said.
The missing documents were eventually produced by Maitland City Council in August last year. Among them was a January, 1999, letter from the MSB to council with a map attached indicating land, including the Neales’ property, affected by mine subsidence.
“Please find enclosed details of the area affected by shallow abandoned workings and where the Mine Subsidence Board has concern about any future development,” it reads.
Again in December, 1999, the MSB writes to council informing them that land “immediately to the east of the East Greta Coal Company Railway” – like the Neales, but just to the south – is deemed “no development”.
“The Mine Subsidence Board considers that this area would be unsuitable for any development,” it reads.
Mr and Mrs Neale built their dream home just east of the old railway line in Figtree Lane, Gillieston Heights, in 2006 without knowing their acreage was above the old East Greta coalmine that closed in the 1920s.
In 2007, after Mr Neale stepped into a sinkhole, the MSB confirmed the old workings.
For eight years, the couple unsuccessfully battled with the board over damage they said subsidence caused to their $900,000 property, and a claim for works to prevent further damage.
After being denied their day in court against the MSB on a technicality – because they lodged their claim too late – the Neales took action against Maitland City Council, suing for $1.3 million in damages.
A hearing in the Sydney District Court in June heard the Neale’s property was worthless and the couple had incurred significant costs over many years.
Barrister for the Neales, Anthony Cheshire, said the council should not have allowed the land to be subdivided in 2000, which meant the Neales could never have bought it.
Mr Cheshire said the council had “extensive and significant” knowledge for years about the risk of mine subsidence at the property and did nothing to warn the Neales.
The parties settled for an undisclosed sum after the first day of the hearing.
Speaking after the hearing, Mr Neale said the couple had been “put through the wringer for eight years” and were “simply exhausted”.
“We certainly haven’t come out of this whole mess in front, we are a long way behind,” he said. “It put our life on hold for eight years. We are angry and really can’t believe that the Mine Subsidence Board and council knew all along about the risk and never bothered to share that information with us, despite us trying desperately to find out the truth.”
The Neales submitted a freedom of information request with the council in May, 2008, seeking access to documents “relating to mine workings under the property owned by us”.
A month later they submitted a similar request with the MSB requesting relevant documents between the MSB and council, the response was “there are none for this property”.
In December, 2011, a subpoena was served on the MSB and it successfully sought to restrict access to documents from between December 2001 and June 2004.
This meant the MSB did not have to produce the earlier letters to the council that detailed the shallow mine workings in the area.
Mr Neale said he found it “highly suspicious” that the MSB opted for a period that would exclude the crucial letters and pointed out that the MSB failed to produce a letter dated January 8, 2004, that fell within the agreed timeframe and would have assisted the couple’s case.
“The whole thing has not been fair from the beginning,” he said. “We just wanted the truth and to be treated fairly.”
The Department of Finance, Service and Innovation spokeswoman said it was “accepted practice” across government to place “reasonable and agreed bounds” around information searches to “manage expenditure”.
Maitland City Council did not respond to Fairfax questions.
