(Transcript from World News Radio)
The federal Environment Minister says he has delayed any approval of a proposed Chinese-government-owned coal mine in New South Wales.
The decision, just weeks before government approval was expected, comes after concerns raised by farmers about the mine's proximity to prime agricultural lands.
Rhiannon Elston reports.
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The Liverpool Plains, in northern New South Wales, are home to some of the nation's most productive farming.
Wheat, barley, sorghum and cotton grow in abundance, helped by the region's fertile black soil and its underground aquifers.
Crop grower John Hamparsum's property is 30 kilometres south of Gunnedah, near the township of Breeza.
"These soils here are some of the most fertile in Australia. We also have abundant water supplies. So we're able to produce crops through all seasons, and, being so fertile, these soils will continue to produce food and fibre forever."
The Chinese government-owned company Shenhua has bought 37 farms in the area.
It has plans to build a $1.2-billion coal mine on a ridge just 150 metres from the black soil plains.
The project manager of the Shenhua Watermark coal project, Paul Jackson, says mining has been deliberately kept away from prime farming area.
"The mine plan has actually pulled back from the black-soil plains. We've installed buffer zones to the black-soil plains. And we are 100 per cent in the ridge country, mining in the ridge country, in the red-soil areas, in the areas which are not used for cropping."
(Chanting ...)
Environmentalists are also concerned.
At a protest in Tamworth, many were worried about the impact on the area's struggling koala population.
Shenhua says it plans to plant trees to replace habitat lost in construction.
Meanwhile, traditional owners are also voicing their concerns, particularly over plans to relocate Indigenous artefacts found onsite.
Tania Matthews is a local Gomeroi woman.
"Aboriginal history is the whole of Australian history. It's for everyone. And all these significant areas here, it's our home these significant areas are in, and we don't want them touched, we don't want them destroyed. We've had everything else destroyed all around us. This is our fight now. This is what we're going to protect."
Shenhua plans to extract a series of grinding grooves found in rock platforms on the site and preserve them for around 20 years.
It then plans to replace them on the site when the mining pit is closed and the land regenerated.
Local elder Wayne Matthews says he does not believe that can be done without impacting on the artefacts.
"I work in the mining industry. I've been in the mining industry 30 years. And Shenhua is saying, 'We'll move that rock.' That rock could be 45 metres deep. How do you move a rock that's 45 metres deep? You cannot. You can't just cut it up and move it aside and put back. The impact is enormous."
The Gunnedah region has a hundred-year-old history with coalmining.
There are nine coalmines already in the region.
But at 15,000 hectares, Shenhua's Watermark project would be, by far, the largest.
Shenhua's Paul Jackson says the operation will bring economic benefits to Gunnedah and the surrounding area.
"We could potentially become the largest employer in Gunnedah, so we will have a major impact on this town economically, and we intend to be a contributing member to it. And the benefits are here already. They'll just be, I guess, supercharged, once we go into construction phase."
The New South Wales government has approved the project, but it still needs federal approval.
After visiting the Liverpool Plains late last month, Environment Minister Greg Hunt says he has "stopped the clock" on the approval process.
He says he is seeking more advice on the mine's possible threat to water resources.
Farmer John Hamparsum says he welcomes additional scrutiny of the coalmine project.
"Once it's gone in there and it's left these big voids full of rubble, the concern is then that the salinity that builds up in that water and that rubble would leech out into the plains and destroy these fertile soils."
Shenhua's Paul Jackson says he stands by the scientific assessments done on the site to date.
"Politicians will do what politicians do, and they do that for their specific reasons. I wouldn't call the politicians who have come out in recent days, with making statements, clearly technical people."
If approved, construction on the mine site could start as early as this year.
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