DEVASTATED farmers claim approval of Shenhua Watermark's controversial $1 billion coalmine has "signed the death warrant" for agriculture on the Liverpool Plains.
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The state's independent Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) announced yesterday its approval of the open-cut project subject to a series of "stringent requirements".
The coalmine proposal now only needs to pass through the Commonwealth's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) in order for construction to commence.
The announcement has been greeted with dismay from many of the region's farmers who have fought for years to protect the nation's food bowl from mining activities.
The Chinese state-owned company intends to extract 268 million tonnes of coal over 30 years from deposits located at Breeza, about 25km south-east of Gunnedah.
Breeza primary producer Tim Duddy said the PAC's decision spelled "the end of agriculture as we know it" in one of the country's most fertile and enduring farming areas.
He said the Caroona Coal Action Group, which has led the campaign against the mine, would be taking advice on any and all avenues of appeal available to challenge the ruling. "Basically the Planning Assessment Commission has signed the death warrant of the Liverpool Plains," he said.
"We have participated in this process in good faith that the things that are important to us in this region will be protected and the PAC have failed to do that."
Fellow Liverpool Plains farmer Rosemary Nankivell said it "beggars belief" that a "stinking, dirty coalmine" could be approved on such fertile farmland.
She said it was "not a decision that will be taken lying down" as the company had "no social licence" to proceed with the mine.
"This is the greatest insult that has ever been paid to a farming community in Australia," she said.
"Other agricultural communities have got to be very careful because if they let mining go ahead here, there is no agricultural region that is safe on this earth."
Shenhua Watermark project manager Paul Jackson said the announcement marked the final step of a "long journey" through the NSW approvals process.
He said the PAC's decision "again confirmed the irrefutable evidence showing the project will not harm the valuable irrigation groundwater" farmers relied upon.
"We have worked tirelessly to demonstrate the project strikes the right balance to unlock the economic and social benefits of mining, while ensuring the valuable agricultural production on the Liverpool Plains continues uninterrupted," he said.
Mr Jackson said while it would take a "number of months" for the mine to go through the EPBC process, he envisaged construction would begin during the 2015-16 financial year.
