Month: November 2018

By Johanna Evans It’s the hour before sunrise in the Pilliga forest, it’s cool and the stars cover the forest like a blanket, it’s quiet mostly, the occasional truck belts down the Newell not seeing the scars left by gas company Eastern Star Gas and their cowboy fracker contractors who held no regard for the sacred Biliga. The Pilliga forest is the largest inland forest in New South Wales, an iconic Australian landscape offering rugged beauty on a grand scale, 3,000 km² of semi-arid woodland sits atop the recharge zone of the Great…continue reading →

The NSW Environmental Protection Authority has slammed many aspects of Whitehaven’s proposed Vickery mine. Having assessed the Vickery Environmental Impact Statement, the regulator believes the air emissions inventory is not transparent and there is not enough information provided. Cumulative noise impacts from surrounding coal mines are not correctly assessed. The EPA has also called on the company to review the rail noise impact assessment and criticised Whitehaven for failing to take into account worst case climatic conditions. Additionally, the EPA stated in relation to the “final void”, the unfilled mine pit Whitehaven Coal…continue reading →