Aboriginal cultural heritage protected as NSW rejects Glendell coalmine expansion
The New South Wales independent planning commission has for the first time ruled against a coalmine extension in Singleton.
Scott Franks and Robert Lester, representatives of the Plains Clans of the Wonnarua People (PCWP), learned this week that priceless Wonnarua cultural heritage in the Upper Hunter region – centred on the Ravensworth Homestead – would be protected because the planning commission had denied Glencore’s Glendell coalmine expansion.
Speaking to Guardian Australia, Franks said: “Ravensworth Homestead should now be placed on the state heritage register and should become a site of reconciliation.”
The planning commission said the Glendell expansion was “not in the public interest” as the mine would have “significant, irreversible and unjustified impacts on the historic heritage values of the Ravensworth Homestead complex”.
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Glencore was seeking to extend the life of its Glendell Continuation Project until 2044 and extract 135m tonnes of coal, providing ongoing employment for 600 workers.
The PCWP said the historic Ravensworth Homestead and surrounding land was “hallowed ground” of the Wonnarua people and the site of a series of massacres from the 1820s onwards.
The site has been owned and maintained by Glencore for the past 23 years, however to enable its extension to proceed Glencore proposed that it would either move the homestead to another part of the property or relocate it to the nearby village of Broke. Both suggestions were rejected by the PCWP.
Rana Koroglu, the NSW managing lawyer of the Environmental Defenders Office, who represents the PCWP, said: “Thanks to this decision, the priceless Wonnarua cultural heritage of the Ravensworth Estate – including its important associations with the frontier wars in the Hunter Valley – that was under threat from this proposal, will also be saved.”
She went onto to say “the project would have had unacceptable impacts on heritage and its approval would have been contrary to the principles of ecologically sustainable development”.
Since 2011, the NSW government has approved 74 mining projects and only rejected seven. This week’s decision sets a precedent in the Singleton local government area, as no coalmining extension there has ever been knocked back by the planning commission.
The decision follows the recent announcement by the NSW government that open cut coalmining at the Dartbrook mine site near Aberdeen in the Upper Hunter will be prohibited.
A spokesperson from Glencore told the Guardian that it was “extremely disappointed” and “will carefully review the IPC’s determination and statement of reasons and then decide if any further course of action is required”.
Sophie Nicholls is a freelance writer based in the Hunter Valley
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