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Ian Jackson on his property, which overlooks the site of the proposed Rocky Hill mine.

'We’re collateral damage': coalmine battle drains Gloucester residents

This article is more than 5 years old
Ian Jackson on his property, which overlooks the site of the proposed Rocky Hill mine.

Although the court verdict has gone against the company, there’s still a chance of a revised plan being submitted

Step into the kitchen of Ian Jackson’s Gloucester home and a desktop screen panorama reveals itself.

In the foreground, a crisscross of paddocks remains obstinately green in the face of the crippling drought plaguing much of Australia’s east coast, dotted with gum trees and bisected by the Avon river.

In the distance lie the Mograni Ranges, one of a series of peaks that cradle the Gloucester Basin from all sides.

Jackson moved to Gloucester from Sydney with his family in 1998 to give his two daughters “a better life,” he says, and to “live the dream”.

For the last decade though, the postcard-perfect view has come to feel like a physical reminder of what his family stood to lose.

The Jackson home sits about a kilometre from the proposed site of an open-cut coking coalmine which, had it gone ahead, would have swallowed the sweeping vista before him.

“It’s just a constant reminder of what’s been hanging around our necks,” he told Guardian Australia this week.

An aerial view of the proposed Rocky Hill mine site in Gloucester.

“We’ve tried to make a point not to dwell on it too much so we don’t destroy our kids’ lives growing up here. But the stress of seeing this, everyday, you try to put it in the back of your head but there’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about the future.”

Last week, though, a reprieve of sorts: the chief judge of the New South Wales land and environment court, Brian Preston, dismissed an appeal by mining company Gloucester Resources over a proposed open-cut coking coalmine 5km outside of Gloucester.

The company had been seeking to overturn a government decision to reject the coalmine because of its impact on the town, but the ruling has been hailed by environment groups as a landmark decision because Preston partially rejected the appeal on the basis of the mine’s impact on climate change.

A sign in Gloucester sends out a strong message.

It sparked celebrations outside the court in Sydney. David Morris, the chief executive of the Environment Defenders Office of NSW, which ran the case on behalf of members of the Gloucester community, called the decision “momentous” and said it would be “profoundly influential” in the approval of future fossil fuel projects.

But back in Gloucester this week the mood was more circumspect. On Friday, a private gathering of residents who had fought against the mine promised relaxation, and “a chance to breathe”.

So why the muted reaction by residents such as Jackson?

Partly it’s practical. Gloucester Resources has three months to decide whether or not to appeal against the decision, and while the mining leases remain, there’s still the chance the company could resubmit a revised plan.

But according to Dianne Montague – a Gloucester resident who played a key role fighting the mine over the past decade – the effort has had a huge personal cost for the residents, particularly in the relatively new subdivision of Forbesdale living closest to the mine.

Dianne Montague says the fight has had a huge personal cost for the residents of Gloucester.

“I’ve seen what has happened to the people [in] Forbesdale with respect to the mental illnesses because of the stress of the mine,” she tells Guardian Australia, describing friends with stress amnesia, nervous breakdowns or else just packing up to leave.

“It’s hard to explain to people what it’s like. The threat of the mine is so great that they sit there every day thinking about it, ‘what am I going to do when there’s a mine there?’.

“What happens is people find out about this mine and then their lives are on hold because of the unknown. They live with this fear. Then, particularly if they’re part of the campaign, they’re reminded about it all the time. It takes over your whole life.”

A protest sign against the Rocky Hill mine.

To understand the wariness of some Gloucester residents requires a brief history lesson. Ten years ago, in mid-2009, Gloucester Resources – a privately owned mining firm – began renewing mining licences over land surrounding three sides of the town.

The company spent millions buying up surrounding land, and lodged a development application for the mine in December of 2012. Three years later – against the weight of thousands of submissions objecting to the plan – and at the same time as Gloucester residents fought on another front against a proposal by energy company AGL to drill for coal seam gas in Gloucester – the NSW planning department found the mine was not in the public interest.

That didn’t stop its progress, though. Instead, the company revised and resubmitted its plans. Instead of extracting 2.5m tonnes per year as it originally intended, the mine would pull out 2m tonnes of coal per year over a 16-year period.

In 2017 the plan was rejected again, this time by the state’s independent Planning Assessment Commission, because of the environmental impact it found the mine would have on the town.

That still wasn’t it, though. In 2018, the NSW government, through planning minister Anthony Roberts, gave Gloucester Resources the right to challenge the refusal in court – something routinely denied to mining opponents.

Roberts’ decision led to last Friday’s decision – when chief judge Preston ruled against the proposal, finding the mine “would be in the wrong place at the wrong time”.

But as Julie Lyford, the head of the community group which led the charge against the mine – Groundswell Gloucester – says, not everyone trusts that it’s over.

“It’s been 10 years, of course people are happy, but they’re also exhausted and distrustful. Everyone is sensitive to how the government and industry are going to react to this,” Lyford says.

Former mayor Julie Lyford says not everyone trusts that the fight is over.

“I think it’s had quite a profound impact on the town, because for a long time people who would have been investing their time in the community in other ways, like the arts, have funnelled all of their energy into this.”

It’s easy to understand the hesitancy to start popping champagne corks. After the decision, the local state MP, Michael Johnsen, a member of the Nationals and a keen proponent of coalmining, went on the radio to accuse the judge of “judicial activism” calling the refusal “ideological”.

And there are other cases where positive decisions for community groups in the land and environment court have not been the end. In 2013 the residents of Bulga – about 150km south-west of Gloucester – successfully won a case to overturn approval of a Rio Tinto coalmine close to the town.

Rio and the NSW government unsuccessfully appealed against the decision, but after the government changed legislation more favourable to the mine, Rio Tinto was able to get it approved.

Ian Jackson moved to Gloucester from Sydney with his family in 1998 to give his two daughters ‘a better life’.

“There was a feeling of anger and there still is,” John Krey from the Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association, which fought against the mine, says.

“People still say to me, isn’t there something we can do about this? And as it stands we can’t. The deck is stacked against us.”

For Jackson, the court decision has not immediately brought him comfort.

“It’s not relief. I don’t feel relieved,” he said this week.

“I feel happy that we’ve been vindicated, again, but we – us and all of the residents here – we’re just collateral damage in all of this.”

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