The Liverpool Plains, in northern NSW, is 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.
A plan by Chinese government-owned company Shenhua to build a $1.2 billion coal mine near the region has sparked the anger of local farmers.
John Hamparsum can see the proposed Shenhua mine site from his Breeza property, 30 kilometres south of Gunnedah.
“These soils here are some of the most fertile in Australia; we also have abundant water supplies,” he says.
“So we’re able to produce crops through all seasons, and being so fertile, these soils will continue to produce food and fibre forever.
Shenhua’s Watermark site sits on a ridge 150 metres from the black soil plains.
Project Manager Paul Jackson says mining will be deliberately kept away from the prime farming area.
“We are 100 per cent in the ridge country, mining in the ridge country, in the red soil areas, in the areas not used for cropping,” he says.
“These soils here are some of the most fertile in Australia; we also have abundant water supplies"
John Hamparsum says that’s no guarantee the mine’s operations won’t impact local farming.
“It has taken millions of years for these soils to get here and millions of years for the aquifers that are below here to form, but a 30 year mine could put all of that at risk.”
Environmentalists are also concerned.
At a small protest held in Tamworth in February, many were worried about the impact to the area's struggling koala population.
Shenhua says it plans to plant trees to replace food sources lost in construction.
Tree planting has already begun on the site.
Meanwhile, traditional owners are also voicing their concerns, particularly over plans to relocate Indigenous artefacts found onsite.
Shenhua plans to extract a series of grinding grooves found in rock platforms on the site and preserve them for around 20 years, replacing them on the site when the mining pit is closed and the land regenerated.
Gomeroi man Wayne Matthews believes that can't be done without impacting the artefacts.
"I work in the mining industry. I've been in the mining industry for 30 years,” he says.
“Shenhua is saying we'll move that rock. That rock could be 45 metres deep. How do you move a rock that is 45 metres deep? You cannot. You can't just cut it up and move it aside and put back. The impact is enormous."
Gomeroi woman Tania Matthews agrees.
"Aboriginal history is the whole of Australian history. It's for everyone. And all these significant areas here, it's our home, and we don't want them touched. We don't want them destroyed.”
"We could potentially become the main employer in Gunnedah, so we will have a major impact on this town economically, and we intend to be a contributing member to it."
The Gunnedah region has a 100-year history with coal mining.
There are nine already in the region.
At 15,000 hectares, Shenhua's Watermark project will be among the largest.
Shenhua's Paul Jackson says the operation will bring economic benefits to Gunnedah and the surrounding area, and that the community has already begun to feel the benefits.
"We could potentially become the main employer in Gunnedah, so we will have a major impact on this town economically, and we intend to be a contributing member to it.
“The benefits are here already, they'll just be, I guess, supercharged once we go into construction phase."
The New South Wales government has given the Shenhua Watermark Coal Project the green light, but it’s still awaiting federal approval.
That's now been delayed.
After visiting the Liverpool Plains late last month, Environment Minister Greg Hunt says he's “stopped the clock” on the approval process in order to seek additional advice on the mine's possible threat to water resources.
Farmer John Hamparsum welcomes additional scrutiny of the coal mine project.
“The concern is that the salinity that builds up in that rubble will leech out into the plains and destroy these fertile soils,” he says.
Paul Jackson says Shenhua stands by the independent scientific assessments done on the site to date.
“At the end of the day, we’ll continue to rely on the science, and we’re confident we’ve got the science right.”
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