IT HAS been abandoned for more than three decades, but the dust is yet to settle at the Woodsreef asbestos mine.
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The open-cut asbestos mine near Barraba, population 1100, has sat empty since white-asbestos mining and processing at the site stopped in 1983.
Now state government agencies and the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia are preparing to meet townspeople to discuss and address safety concerns.
Rehabilitation of the site and a proposed road closure will be on the agenda at two meetings today.
Closing Crow Mountain Rd, which runs through the site, was a key recommendation of a damning NSW Ombudsman’s report handed down in 2010.
The ombudsman described the site as an “environmental disaster”.
Barraba Community Development Committee spokes-man Danny Ballard said he was wary of the road in dusty weather.
“If it was a hot summer, dry and windy, I would not drive along there with the windows down,” he said.
Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia president Barry Robson says the proposed road closure isn’t enough, and the government should stump up the estimated $80 million-plus needed to remediate the whole site.
The derelict mine covers about 400 hectares.
Its open pits are large enough to be seen via satellite.
The Woodsreef Taskforce – a coalition of government agencies that includes representatives of Tamworth Regional Council and is charged with making the site safe – says the mine houses 75 million tonnes of waste rock and a 25-million-tonne asbestos tailings dump.
Comment has been sought from the Department of Primary Industries, which is charged with rehabilitating the site.
The NSW Dust Diseases Board reported in 2011 that at least seven former Woodsreef Mine workers have been diagnosed with diseases, including mesothelioma and other forms of lung cancer.
Some locals didn’t want the road closed and were angry they were being asked to do so after decades of use.
