Mine rehabilitation – What do they owe the land?

On 5th February SOMR representatives visited a property in the Rockdale region near Armidale. Unsatisfactory efforts have been made to rehabilitate an unused mining lease located on a private property.

The issue was brought to SOMR’s attention because of its potential impact on the Macleay Catchment via the Wollomombi River. There are concerns about land stability, soil contaminants entering the waterways and plastic rubbish brought onto the site in poor quality mulch intended to replace topsoil.

Read more  What Do They Owe the Land

Meetings with Major Stakeholders

After the wonderful success of the Paddle on the Macleay, the SOMR committee turned its attention once more to fact finding about Hillgrove Mines and the contamination of the Macleay River. SOMR, as recently as last week had several positive meetings with the major stakeholders, those being Bracken Resources of Hillgrove Mines, representatives of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and scientists from the University of New England (UNE). Below contains a link to a report about each of the meetings. The Hillgrove Mines as well as EPA representatives were given the opportunity to correct or add to the SOMR accounts and responded with some clarifications which we included.

Dr Susan Wilson from UNE summarized their findings about the Macleay River catchment in the attached letter to SOMR.

November Highlights

UNE letter to SOMR

Special screening of new coal and gas mining films

Lock the Gate Film Screening Poster

Special screening of new coal and gas mining films 

Two ground-breaking new films produced by the Lock The Gate Alliance will be screening at the Oddfellows Hall on Saturday the 30th November from 7pm.

The two 35 minute documentaries tell the powerful stories of Australians whose lives have been changed forever by coal and gas mining, and they show the potential for all regional communities to be affected by the massive expansion of mining activity right across Australia.

The films, Fractured Country: An Unconventional Invasion and Undermining Australia: Coal vs Communities, were directed by filmmakers Brendan Shoebridge and David Lowe from the Northern Rivers, NSW. Both films provide shocking examples of the impacts that both coal and gas mining are having on water resources and the risk they pose to drinking water catchments, farm water supplies and the Great Artesian Basin.