Maitland
On Thursday evening we stayed at the Imperial Hotel in Maitland which was comfortable, and it had good pub food too. Maitland is a lovely country town and the op shops were top shelf! Next time we’ll take more time so we can see the Australian Museum of Clothing & Textiles and the Regional Art Gallery.
Hunter Renewal Presentation
After dinner, Steve Murphy from Hunter Renewal, gave us very helpful background information on the coal industry in the Hunter. The report on the Hunter Renewal website is very worthwhile reading.
Demand for coal, especially the thermal coal mined in the Hunter/Newcastle region, will decline enormously over the coming decades, by 40-90% by 2050 according to the International Energy Agency (IEA, March 2024), and by 100% globally by 2040 according to Glencore’s internal modelling. The Hunter Valley coal mines will leave behind 25 voids roughly equivalent to the area of Sydney Harbour.
Mining companies are obliged to rehabilitate towards the ‘final landform’ approved in their development consents, but NSW laws currently set out no cohesive framework for the managed closure of a mine at the end of its life or for the restoration of the land and its release for new purposes. This makes rehabilitation enforcement difficult, and as a result we are failing to meet international standards and best practice guidelines.
The Hunter Restoration Blueprint calls for an independent Hunter rehabilitation and restoration commission to be created and to develop a landscape vision for the region, coordinate restoration, and enforce best practice standards for mine rehabilitation and closure.
The voids left behind by the mines will need extensive, active management for years. Coal seams are aquifers and ground water sinks. Left without rehabilitation and management, mining voids will fill with toxic, salty water, but the sheer size of them raises the question as to what extent rehabilitation is even possible – filling the voids is not.
Mines set their own rehabilitation targets, audit their own progress and are supposed to self-report failure to achieve the targets.
Hunter Renewal believes that the Hunter Valley could become a centre of leading international research and innovation in post-mining landscape restoration – an area that will be increasingly in demand globally and could provide opportunities for local people to be trained and employed in regenerative industries.
The NSW government’s Future Jobs & Investment Authority for the Hunter (tasked with creating jobs, re-skilling workers where necessary and advancing economic diversification) is not adequate in scope or authority.