Saving Anvil Hill

Greenpeace worked with other environmental groups to save Anvil Hill from a massive coal mine, which the NSW government approved. If built, this Hunter Valley mine will be a social, economic and environmental disaster for the Hunter Valley and the planet.

The Anvil Hill mine would be one of NSW’s largest coal mines. Its developer, Centennial Coal, estimates it would produce 10.5 million tonnes of coal each year. When burned, this coal would produce greenhouse gases equivalent to doubling the number of cars on NSW’s roads to eight million. Yet at no stage in this mine’s approval process were its climate implications considered.

Despite talking up the urgency of the climate change threat, NSW’s leaders are clearly walking backwards when it comes to tackling the problem at its source: coal.

• Key link in climate-changing chain

• Capsizing the "Hunter Ark"

• Hurting horsebreeding and wine industries

• Undermining community consultation

• Broad coalition aims to save Anvil Hill

Key link in climate-changing chain

Newcastle is already the world’s largest coal export port. Anvil Hill’s development is being used to expand its infrastructure further. This includes plans for a new coal loader that would boost the port’s climate-changing coal exports by almost 40 per cent. This is one of many reasons that Greenpeace has singled out Anvil Hill as a key link in the dangerous chain of more coal mining, more coal exports, and more climate change. We are drawing “a line in the sand” at Anvil Hill.

Capsizing the "Hunter Ark"

The mine will also have devastating local impacts. Anvil Hill is part of the Wybong uplands, one of the largest pieces of remnant vegetation left in the Hunter Valley. Locals call it the "Hunter Valley Ark” for its extraordinarily high species diversity, many of which are already threatened or endangered. It should be a nature reserve, not a coal mine.

• Watch video about the bid to save Anvil Hill on You Tube
• Watch video of local resident and teacher Wendy Wales speaking out against the proposed mine
• Watch video of local Peter Kennedy calling on the Iemma government to stop the Anvil Hill mine.
• Make a virtual visit to Anvil Hill with Google Earth

"Our Board is in no doubt the establishment of the Anvil Hill coal mine will result in a severe negative impact on the area’s Tourism Industry and will serve to destroy the hard work and resources invested in the industry to date.” 

   

Upper Hunter Tourism Inc.

Hurting horsebreeding and wine industries

Local thoroughbred horsebreeders, wine makers and tourism officials also oppose the mine. Their reasons:  it will be a major user of scarce water resources, create large amounts of dust, and generate noise impacts almost five times greater than any approved NSW mining project. A general deterioration of the local environment, and declining health and welfare of surrounding communities would be the result. The mine would mean the end of sustainable agricultural operations that, in some cases, have operated for generations. Two hundred people would have to leave the area.

Climate of confusion: Undermining community consultation

The public’s right to open and fair consultation has been trampled in the Anvil Hill approval process. Limited consultation has been held, with little or inadequate notice given. Centennial Coal has employed well-used divide and conquer tactics, including paying local landowners to enter contracts to enforce their silence and even “do all things and sign all documents” Centennial asks them to. The NSW planning department has refused to assess the project on the basis of the greenhouse impacts of the coal it would produce. In November, 2006, the state government worked to block public dissent by changing state planning regulations, to make it easier to ram through projects like Anvil Hill without proper consideration of environmental impacts.

Broad coalition aims to Save Anvil Hill

The good news is that Greenpeace is working to stop Anvil Hill in partnership with the Anvil Hill Alliance, a broad coalition that includes Hunter Valley locals, winemakers and thoroughbred breeders; dozens of community and environment groups; scientists and coal miners, and even citizens’ groups from Sydney.

A major breakthrough came with a landmark November 2006 ruling, in a case brought to the courts by Newcastle student Peter Gray. The court's decision means climate change must be considered in the approvals process for future coal projects. This historic decision puts pressure on Australian governments to ditch polluting coal and protect our climate.