Airly Coal Mine Expansion

I fully support this expansion

I fully support this expansion

I wish to make a submission in support of the Airly Mine extension.
I have lived in the mudgee region for 12 years now and even though I came to mudgee within the banking industry, I was able to get employment in the mining industry 5 years ago.
For the last 5 years I have been employed by centennial coal and am proud of the image and reputation they have built up in the western districts during this time.
I am currently employed at the Airly mine and to not have the current expansion go through would effect myself and my family immensely.
Although I currently reside in Mudgee I travel each day to Capertee for work and am a regular visitor to the Lithgow region for Mines rescue training at the Lithgow Coal Services compound as well as our whole family attending regularly to the Westfund offices for all our Dental and Optical needs.
All three of our children were born at Mudgee hospital and have all their friends and peer support here where they have grown up.
My wife is a permanent school teacher and if I were to lose my job we would have to uproot our children to move somewhere that I was able to find employment. This would be a major disruption to them as well as my wifes career which she would have to resign and hopefully pick up wherever we end up.
My wife, children and I all have a strong connection with this area as it is where we have decided to make our home and the capertee valley is a valuable part of our family time together, whether it be camping at turon gates or just bushwalking within the capertee valley which we are so proud to know is able to co-exist with the local mine that provides the main income for our family.
Yours sincerely,
Shannon Daniell

I support this expansion. As I have family and friends that are currently working at Airly.

I have been in the mining industry for 5 years, 9 months of that has been at Airly Mine. Those 5 years of experience I've never seen a mine operate with such a low environmental impact and a work force with a possitivte attitude towards safety, cleanliness the environemnt and the community.

Airly is not just economically important to its location ( Capertee ) but to other surrounding towns and cities such as Kandos, Rylstone, Lithgow, Wallerawang and Bathurst Each employee a treasure to his/her local community and surrounding.

With Airly Expanding this would provide 135 much needed jobs over the next 25 years and prevent families and communities suffering from unemployment.

Airlys Extension is Vital and with a workforce trained for a environmental individual commitment to a group effort that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilisation work.

I hope my submission helps towards Airlys extension and the next 25 years of employment and economic success.

Nick Rawlinson

This extension would be great for the already suffering local economy. With the closure of mines in the area families and local businesses are suffering, so this extension would give some hope in these tough times. Centennial coal does a great job with supporting local sports teams and community events.

Am in support of Airly. as a wife, daughter and granddaughter of miner's
If it wasn't for Airly my family would have to move looking for work else were. Dew to the closer of the cement work's there is not much job opportunities in the area.
Having to boys at the age of 13 & 16 knowing that there is no work for them when the leave school is hard. But not having work for my husband at Airly will be harder. Knowing that our lovely little town of Kandos will DIE!!!! with a lot of family's like mine having to move else where.
Airly may employ over 50 worker's but what about the ones in our town that have employment form the worker's of Airly. I work at the local R.S.L and have been there over 5 year's and if it wasn't for these man coming in and supporting my place of employment I be with at a JOB. And what about the local business that all so employ people I no they would have to let people go if Airly closed.
No Airly, No local Job's, No family's, No town's :-(
I SUPPORT AIRLY 110%

I 100% support this submission and cannot fathom the impact of this not going ahead not only on the local community but on mining in Australia in general. Lithgow community has effectively declined due to opposition due to environmental factors. Lithgow has been a strong industrial town dating back whether that be the small arms factory, the steel works, the power stations the mines etc.

These have been the pivotal components that have lead to the expansion of this country town. Take a look around, the mining is sustaining a town currently stunted by growth due to the increasing number of people out of work. More and more people are moving away, small business are shutting and real estate will start to decline with new houses and prices.

In 2011 Lithgow took some big hits with The private hospital closing, airly coal mine and coalpac stopping production. This left the community reeling. So many jobs gone and some just prior to christmas. Many of these guys had to move away from there homes and love ones just to afford their mortgages. These men and women could not find local employment and had to apply for temp work or fly in fly out. Have you been in a situation where your next paycheck will be coming from? Or how you can support your family? How you will give your children the Christmas you know they deserve? The fear of not paying rent or mortgage repayments. Have you ever spoken to the men and women who are depressed having to apply for benefits at centrelink when there fathers and there fathers worked in mining. Have you ever come to Lithgow and discussed the impact on the real people of the town? Not just the environmentalist?!

Let's fast forward to 2014. Wallerawang power station ceased operation and is mothballed. Leaving the future of hundreds of workers and contractors up in the air. This alone has forced contracting companies to lay off staff, more family relocated and that horrible feeling of "what the hell will we do". It's lefts workers to scared to take holidays or sick leave because of the fear that this will be the reasoning of there family not eating. Worried that they won't be offered a role at the sister power station as
They're at capacity for staff as it is. Then the devStating news that Coalpac won't be continuing or expanding meaning the men working away from there families have to remain there. This was Rejected on environmental grounds. And honestly it's been an industrial town for how many years. I bet these people use computers and phones. All of which I'm sure is powered by our power stations which are powered by our coal mines. The rock formations are pretty but no one knew they existed before now and for every tourist they MIGHT bring, they're losing so much for the miners that could be here. A miner who earns $100,000 a year help the local economy by supporting them whether it be the local builder, the clothing shops, the butchers and fruit shop, the painters, the grocers, the hairdressers, the restaurant. Lithgow isn't a hot tourist destination. We're not kidding ourselves. A few tourist to see a rock formation will not even meet the Impact of one miner and his family gone.

Keep moving forward to now. To yesterday in fact. Angus place colliery is closing. Just shy of 300 workers there. Can they just be transferred. NO. Families yet again worried about there future, their children, there commitments. It's putting strains on marriages, relationships and friendships.

When the govt sold the power stations, the staff were guaranteed 4yrs of employment. Due to the coalpac expansion not going ahead the future of mt piper is in doubt.

Let's look at the impact of this and potential closes.
Hyperthetically let's pretend the power stations gone, coalpac and angus place gone. Let's also imagine airly gone. This is at least 1000-2000 jobs. Let's assume 1000 just for numbers. These workers come from a family of 3. So 3000 less people in the area. Now the flow on effect will mean the people who service these places the laundromat, the engineering companies, the cleaners, the car dealerships will all face ultimate losses and staff reductions or closures. This then means these family will tighten down and it's the small local business of the town who will suffer. The florist, the builders, the fish and chip shops, the clothing stores, beauticians. It honestly will have horrible consequences for this already struggling town.

This town needs airly to continue. It needs the security and our workers deserve that. Our families deserve this. And our town needs to survive. The greenies will screw over this town before moving on. Mining has a major economical effect on our country. If the greenies get there way Australia will suffer. In an economy already struggling to recover.


Airly coal mine needs to go ahead. Come to Lithgow. Walk the streets. Talk to the real people.

Secure our future and that of our children.

Let's consider the impact of

As an employee of the mining industry I am aware of the detail which goes into such assessments. Organisationally I believe that every endeavour is made to truly consider the impacts of the work we do, on the environment we affect and to the community at large.
As sole provider for my family, my earnings are feed back into the local economy and community. I love being able to live in Mudgee while maintaining meaningful employment and career development. The quality of life enjoyed by our whole family is vastly superior to what it would be if I was working in the city as an engineer.
We can only continue this existence while employment opportunities are available.

Its great for the community the state and the country.
We need mining we need jobs.
It needs to be approved

Good to see another mine the community needs the jobs. And mines are a good wildlife refuge all the wild life on the mines propertys are amazing.

Good to see another mine the community needs the jobs. And mines are a good wildlife refuge all the wild life on the mines propertys are amazing.

We need mining we need jobs

I support the extension project. It is very beneficial to our town and the people in it especially my family as my husband works for the mines and would loose his job. We would loose his income and potentially our home and life style. We may have to move away which would be terrible for our 3 children and the community which we support. I also work as a school teacher and this would be very disruptive to my school if we had to leave or if my husband had to move away from us to find a new job. This is the same story for hundreds of families that rely on the mine and this extension to go ahead.

It is essential this this goes ahead for the sake of our towns and families. With the massive job losses of recent the towns will be ghost towns before long.

This mine needs to go ahead alot of locals need this.

I currently work at the Airly mine project and for this mine not to gain it's approvals because of a few small minded and very uneducated people is a terrible thought.
These people really do not know what they are talking about when it comes to the topic of coal mining. Most of them have never stepped foot in a working coal mine to see actually how non detrimental to the environment we actually are and further more are not even from the affected area.
For this approval not to go through would have such wide spread ramifications. Not just on Capertee itself but all of the other little surrounding townships. That mine is the backbone and life blood of a lot of those little townships and for it not to get approved, these townships could quite possibly no longer thrive or exist. Families will have to pack up and leave to find employment. I love this community. I've lived here for over 26 years and I don't want to leave and have to find work.
So for the small uneducated minority who would love to see this knocked back. Stop and have a think about the lives you're trying to ruin and everyone you're affecting here.

The Kandos and Rylstone area has had the misfortune of several industries closing resulting in job losses from Cement Australia and more recently Charbon Underground. We were fortunate you might say that many (not all) of the Charbon employees were assisted with jobs at Airly Underground. Both my husband and son are employed at Airly, as are many other locals with families to support. If the extension for Airly is not granted, there will be major impacts on families such as as ours. The impacts will be signifincant and include:
- major unemployment,
- families faced with financial hardship,
- forced house sales - lowering real estate values, increasing vacancy rates among rentals
- potential for increased mental health illnesses such as stress, depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation &
- loss of valuable community support (Centennial sponsors numerous sporting teams and events within the local community)

As a result of such impacts, many families will be forced to relocate in search of employment, resulting in:
- a genuine economic downturn for the Rylstone and Kandos communities & business houses &
- loss of already scarce professionals who are married to coal miners such as teachers, and nurses.

Please give strong consideration to approving the extension of Airly. The employees and the company are committed to being as efficient, low impact, safe and environmentally aware during all aspects of operations.

This is the livelihood of many people and families. Keep Airly open!

If you close Airly you close our towns and communites.

It is vital that Airly Mine continues to extend as it gives many locals employment, Allowing people to be able to live in our area.

The mining industry employs a lot of people within the area which in turn brings money to the town and keeps other businesses associated in the town open therefore I am all for the expansion of airly mine!