You are invited to Leard Forest Bush Walk Sunday 13th April

When:  Sunday, 13 April 2014 at 9:00AM-1PM then bush picnic

Where: Leard Forest, Maule’s Creek near Boggabri NSW (approximately 18 km NE of Boggabri)

A guided half-day walking tour of the Leard Forest, habitat of listed threatened species, critically endangered and vulnerable species, listed threatened ecological communities and listed migratory species.

Maule’s Creek open cut coal mine – an astonishing case study of how Australian mining and planning laws have failed to protect a threatened ecosystem.

A concerted failure of our environmental protections at Commonwealth, State and Local Government levels has resulted in a situation where 665 hectares of potential habitat for listed endangered and migratory species, being the swift parrot, the regent honeyeater and the greater long-eared bat, could soon be lost forever.

544 hectares of critically endangered ecological community, namely White Box, Yellow Box, Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland are condemned to destruction after a Federal Court Judge found in December 2013 that the approval of the Maule’s Creek coalmine was lawful.

Maule’s Creek coalmine will produce an estimated 13 million tonnes per annum of coal over a 21 year period, resulting in the disturbance of 2,000 hectares of land including 1,665 hectares of native vegetation. In doing so, it will:

• Cause a reduction in the water table available to local farmers by an estimated 10 metres
• Cloak the Maule’s Creek valley in coal dust due to the presence of an inversion effect
• Harm adjoining farming communities and render them marginal and unsustainable
• Irreplaceably destroy Gomeroi significant cultural and sacred sites

The Leard Forest Bushwalk is a rare opportunity to inspect and record for posterity the threatened forest, with the aspiration that we can learn and attempt to turn around the sorry state of affairs that exists in Australia today with respect to planning approvals of inappropriate coal mining.

Matters for further study:

The prognosis for the threatened species of Leard Forest is critical.  Unless an appeal can be upheld against the decision of December 2013 in the Federal Court, the coal mine will proceed and the mythical Biodiversity offsets will be unable to provide habitat that sufficiently replaces the lost Forest.

Obviously, extinction of native species and ecosystems is of no concern to Whitehaven Coal, the Australian, NSW governments or Narrabri Council. Nor are the changes to farmland that will occur, or the harm to air quality.

We now need to concentrate on:

• The Environmental Impact Assessment of the Maule’s Creek coalmine and the factual errors contained therein, relating to the presence of threatened species at Leard Forest
• The fictitious Biodioversity offsets relied on by the Maule’s Creek mine proponent Whitehaven Coal
• Future health impacts to residents of the valley
• Economic and social erosion of the community and how coal mining will damage the sustainable farming in the area
• Equity in relation to water access (coal miners pay a fraction of the cost that farmers pay for water even now)
•  Idemitsu Boggabri coal mine extension should also be a matter for further study

Invited to attend:

Scientists, Ecologists, Environmental lawyers, Students of those disciplines, Bushwalkers, Birdwatchers, Photographers, Film makers

Background information:

Available documents for further study include the Maule’s Creek Coal mine Environmental Impact Statement, independent scientific critiques of the coal mine documentation including the Biodiversity offsets, the Federal Court decision. These can be sent to you via Dropbox.

CALL Anna Christie on {mobile prefix oh four}25 322 186 to enquire or book your place in the Leard Forest Bushwalk on Sunday, 13 April or email anna.christie@optusnet.com.au

There are camping, cabin and Narrabri hotels and motels to choose from – call Anna for more information.