Shenhua mine
Shenhua has created an erroneous impression that Koala habitat and survival in the Gunnedah basin is assured through the efforts of mining companies and the Department of Planning Industry and Environment. "Whitehaven, Shenhua say koalas considered in biodiversity plans" (9 January, 2020).
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Last month's Parliamentary Inquiry on Koalas revealed new damning evidence
Correspondence between Whitehaven Coal, the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust (BCT), the Department of Planning, and NSW Treasury reveal that the BCT, charged with the role of negotiating the Conservation Agreements for Maules Creek mine offsets has found the majority of the offsets are not correctly mapped and do not represent the koala habitat and Critically Endangered Ecological Community whose destruction they were intended to offset.
Whitehaven Coal has cleared hundreds of hectares of critically endangered White Box Woodland and River Red Gum Koala habitat without having the requisite biodiversity offsets in place.
For the first time we know clearly why Whitehaven Coal has been unable to fulfill its consent conditions and has been granted two extensions in time since failing its original deadline.
It is over 18 months since the first BCT site inspection of the offsets, and Conservation Agreements still are not completed.
The extended deadline is March 2020. In the interim, between now and March 2020, Whitehaven expects to clear more of the Leard State Forest.
The 500-page tranche of documents was tabled at the Parliamentary Inquiry on 13 December.
Questions were asked about why the DPIE Resource Approvals, responsible for oversight of the Maules Creek mine conditions, allowed this state of affairs to occur and how the Dept of Planning approved the Maules Creek offsets on the basis of draft, incorrect mapping, when the BCT is repeatedly calling for final - not "draft" - maps.
The revelations make a mockery of biodiversity offsets.
No management plans, as smugly referred to by Mr Trotter of Shenhua, can paper over the fundamental failure of the system to replace destroyed habitat of Koalas.
Peter Wills, Chair Wando Conservation and Cultural Centre
Breeza
Koalas
Koalas should be classified as endangered. The government needs to grow a spine and say no to this mine in the Liverpool Plains. Koalas should not have to relocate. It is their home.
They will be stressed and die. Animals lives are worth more money being made from mining.
Nicole Kerrison, Elanora Heights
Save the Koala's
Our native animals and birds are always forced out of the bush through development.
Now it's open cut coal mines. Put the bloody mines back underground and leave the landscape alone.
Robyn McLachlan, Cardiff