Virtual Tour Anvil Hill

View of Anvil Hill Woodland from Wybong PO Road
© John Shewan

On Anvil Hill
© Anvil Hill Project Watch Association Inc

On Anvil Hill
© Anvil Project Watch Association Inc

On Anvil Hill
© Anvil Hill Project Watch Association Inc

Anvil Hill is situated at Wybong, 20 km west of Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter Valley of NSW, Australia.

It is the largest intact stand of remnant vegetation on the Central Hunter Valley floor, home to threatened species, critically endangered ecological communities, migratory species and indigenous heritage.

Destroying the "Hunter Valley Ark"

The area in which the Anvil Hill mine would operate, the Wybong Uplands, is known as the "Hunter Valley Ark" due to its extraordinary biodiversity including black cockatoos, rare wallaby's and unique orchid species. In March 2005, the Hunter Remnant Vegetation Project found that the Wybong Uplands (including Anvil Hill) is one of the largest expanses of remnant vegetation in the Hunter Valley with very high species diversity and many threatened species. Some 440 flora and fauna species have been recorded in the Anvil Hill area, 25 of which are listed as threatened. The report recommended protection of the area through making it a nature reserve or managed trust reserve.[1]

The Anvil Hill mine proposal also covers the largest catchment area for the Wybong Creek, the largest western catchment for the Hunter River in the Muswellbrook local government area. The mine would destroy two creeks, divert another and come within 50 metres of the banks of a fourth.

The Swiss based Xstrata Mining Company wants to lay 4000 hectares of Anvil Hill to waste with a massive open-cut coal mine that will produce at least 9 million tonnes of coal a year and drive the expansion of the Hunter Valley coal industry into timbered rangelands that are considered suitabel for incorporation into the national flora and fauna reserve system.

If Anvil Hill Open-cut Coal Mine goes ahead, together with the abutting Ridgelands Coal and Gas extraction it will accelerate into hyperdrive the onset of dangerous climate change, the greatest threat to the long term continuance of human and non-human life that we will witness in our time on this earth.

Ignoring community consultation

NSW MLC Lee Rhiannon's website contains the following account of the community consultation process:

There are over 200 [actually 500] members of the community directly affected by the proposal. In early 2005 Centennial Coal began a community consultation process with them. Members of the Community Consultative Committee (CCC) were given short notice to attend a presentation of the mine proposal. There was no notice of the meeting or the presentation from Centennial Hunter in the local newspapers. The regular venue of the meeting was also changed without proper notification. As a result, only two of the five community committee members attended along with nine other people. Some people who attended the regular meetings went to the old venue and missed what they thought was a normal meeting. When Centennial Coal was asked to run the presentation again with more notice, the company refused. Nor would they provide a copy of the presentation. Instead, they undertook to visit all the landholders individually and give them a personal overview of the proposal - a well used tactic of divide and conquer.[2]

ANZ - financing climate change

ANZ is the largest bank financier of the Australian coal industry. It is Centennial Coal's banker,[3] and has a 1.5% stake in the company.[4] ANZ is also helping to open up new markets for Hunter coal, such as its US$45 million financing for the huge Map Ta Phut coal-fired power plant in Thailand which will see Hunter coal exported to Thailand for the first time. Hunter Valley residents with ANZ bank accounts are unwittingly financing the destruction of their home and the Hunter's future, and increasing Australia's contribution to climate change, our greatest threat.

[1] Peake, T. "A Report on the findings of the Hunter Remnant Vegetation Project", Vol 1, 2005, available on request.

[2] Webpage of Lee Rhiannon MLC, http://www.lee.greens.org.au/campaigns/coal/anvilhill.htm.

[3] Centennial Coal media release, Centennial Buys Interest In Springvale Mine, 8 December 2000, available at http://www.centennialcoal.com.au/ssl/axs/1/7.asp?intYear=2000&secID=9.

[4]ANZ Nominees Ltd holds 4,371,512 shares in Centennial coal as of the company's Annual Report 2005.

Wybong Action Group

Help us protect The Wybong from Eco-genocide and Bio-extinction

Navigation