Leard Forest’s Last Stand
The frontlines of coal expansion in NSW
The Leard Forest is the largest remnant woodland on the fertile Liverpool plains of central western New South Wales. In a region that has already been massively cleared for agriculture since European settlement, it is one of the last stands of endangered white box forest and hosts a huge diversity of plants and animals. It covers 7,464 hectares.
Half of it is to be clear-felled, and the bare ground will then be excavated to a depth of 300 metres for a cluster of open cut coal mines.
This has already begun at Idemitsu’s Boggabri mine (pictured), which has already cleared five percent of the forest and is rapidly increasing this area. This coal is bound for domestic power generation in Japan.
Whitehaven’s Maules creek mine will begin this process on the other side of the forest, leaving a thin green corridor for wildlife to traverse. Such corridors are death traps for native animals, as predators converge on the natural chokepoints for easy hunting. Maules creek mine was granted conditional approval by Tony Burke on February the 11th 2013.
This approval is currently under a court challenge by a coalition of environmentalists who are focusing on the environmental offsets that were put aside by Whitehaven Coal, claiming that they are insufficient and of non-equivalent ecological value. This challenge is being led by the Northern Inland Council for the Environment (NICE).
A gathering point for the campaign is the forest camp established by Frontline Action on Coal (FLAC) sited several hundred metres from Idemitsu’s Boggabri mine. This camp has been held for around 400 days under the opressively loud noise of mining machinery and blasts, and the ominous glow of halogen lamps lighting up the night sky. This camp serves as a hub for activists to gather together and witness the destruction being wrought in the forest, with periodic gatherings bringing together musicians, poets, artists and activists to exchange ideas and plan creative resistance to the despoliation of our natural heritage.
