Maules Creek Continuation Project

Would be glad for the opportunity to continue with my career growth at this mine, while growing within my community

We object to assessment of the proposal at this time on the grounds that
- there is no justification for such premature lodgement, and
- the guidance for such assessments is likely to change imminently.
See attached for details.

Maules Creek Mine Continuation Project until 2044 will :
- Secure the jobs of more than 900 local workers
- Provide ongoing economic benefits to businesses, families, and services across North West NSW
- Continue our investment in regional development, training, and community partnerships

Maules Creek Mine has helped our locally owned and operated business grow and employee up to 70 local families.
The support from Maules Creek has allowed us as a company do donate over $50K dollars last year to people and originations that need a helping hand within the Gunnedah Community.
Mitch Kelaher - Kelahers

Fuchs Lubricants fully supports the Maules Creek Mine Continuation Project, which will allow operations at Maules Creek to continue until 2044. This continuation project will secure the jobs of more than 900 local workers, provide ongoing economic benefits to businesses, families, and services across North West NSW and will it will see further investment by Whitehaven in regional development, training, and community partnerships. Whitehaven - Maules Creek plays are big supporting roll in the region and now is the time to ensure that that contribution continues into the future.

Please find attached WorkPac's submission in support of Whitehaven Coal’s application for the Maules Creek Continuation Project, seeking to extend the mine life from 2034 to 2044. This project will benefit the local community through the continuation of local jobs and procurement, contributing to the economic resilience of North West NSW.

I object to the proposed Maule Creek coal mine for the following reasons
1. Australia has an appalling record on species extinction. We should be protecting the Swift Parrot. This project will clear over 500 hectares of key foraging habitat for the Swift Parrot, despite only 500 of them remaining in the wild, and will push the species closer to extinction. This is a key site for Swift Parrots and must not be put at risk.
2. The NSW Government shouldn’t be approving a coal mine expansion now that will not even start until 2034 – it is locking in greenhouse gas emissions far into the future that we can’t afford.
3. This proposal is designed to ‘bank’ an approval now before climate laws are strengthened further in response to the rapidly escalating impacts of global warming in the form of more extreme weather events.
4. Whitehaven Coal has an appalling compliance record. In the last 10 years, Whitehaven has been found guilty or investigated for breaches of the law on 35 occasions, many of them including multiple offences. They have been prosecuted numerous times.
5. This expansion poses a major risk to local water resources – it will suck down water beneath local creeks and the groundwater used by farmers to water their stock. Whitehaven has already been prosecuted for stealing water at the Maules Ck coal mine at the height of the last drought.
6. And most important of all, the government should be acting decisively to transition away fro fossil fuels in order to minimise the future impact of climate change. There is no justification for continuing or expanding fossil fuel projects.

Whitehaven Coal Maules Creek JV are strong supporters of the local community and suppliers in the area, the ongoing security of the operation is vital for local business / employment success

Whitehaven Coal and Maules Creek Coal have been a huge part of the growth of Hitachi Construction Machinery (Aus) and ability to invest and Employ, especifically in the Hunter Valley and Gunnedah regions.

The Continuation Project is critical for the region and success of suppliers and communities across Australia. Without its continued approval, there will be huge impacts to our business and employees.

It will support my job and the jobs of many others for years to come and will keep bringing money to the australian economy

The Maules Creek Continuation Project will provide onging benifits to the Gunnedah and Narrabri communities as other smaller mining projects in the region wind down.

Dear Commissioners,

I strongly support the Maules Creek Continuation Project, which is essential to sustaining jobs and strengthening the economy of the Gunnedah region and North West NSW.

The project will secure over 900 direct and indirect jobs, which are critical for Gunnedah and surrounding communities that have historically struggled to provide meaningful, well-paid employment. These roles support local families, create training and apprenticeship pathways, and underpin long-term regional skills development.

Maules Creek Mine is a major economic driver, supporting local businesses, contractors, and service providers, and contributing to community projects and initiatives that benefit the broader region.

The continuation of operations to 2044 will ensure these social and economic benefits remain in place, while Whitehaven continues to operate under strict environmental and rehabilitation commitments.

I respectfully urge the Commission to approve this project to secure regional employment, community resilience, and economic growth for years to come.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Allen

I am an enthusiastic bird watcher, and I am still yet to see a Swift Parrot. I believe one of the best (and possibly only) chance to see one in NSW is in the Leard State Forest as this provides the flowering gums for their winter migration. The Maules Creek Continuation Project threatens the health of this remaining habitat.
In NSW we need to reduce our CO2 emissions urgently. We are in a climate crisis that threatens our wildlife, our health and the future of the planet. Please, you must consider, the climate and the environmental consequences of this mine and NOT allow this extension.

This big coal mine will ruin the swift parrot habitat, and the whole ecosystem. This will in turn contribute to accelerated climate change. What legacy do we hold for the future generations of Australians, and at a time when we should be switching to renewable. Please, please don't!!

There has been no consultation with Maules Creek community council or Maules Creek CWA. Whitehaven claim that consultation has taken place with the local community. No person contacted from the local community that we know has been consulted. Who, if anyone has Whitehaven consulted with?

Climate change is here. there should be no more new coal mines, or coal mine extensions. This mine is not an extension or modification. It is a new mine in a new location and should be assessed as such. Emissions must be assessed as part of the assessment, or Australia has no chance of meeting the Paris Agreement.

This mine must must trigger tony Windsor's water trigger. The coal mines in Maules Creek have changed the abundance of water in Maules Creek. I frequently managed the irrigation pumps on my friends property Wando, a near neighbour of the mines. The bore levels varied enormously. sometimes the water is 1 meter down, on one occasion I measured the water 4.5 meters down. this level was not compatible with irrigating his crops.

In just 10 years time the Swift Parrots are projected to become extinct. (Heinsohn et al. 2015, Owens et al. 2022).
Swift Parrots are listed as Critically Endangered, and are at significant risk of extinction fragmentation, degradation and habitat loss, all of which will occur if this Maules Creek Continuation Project is approved, will greatly contribute to the lose and or extinction of Swift Parrots.
The habitat in the Leard State Forest is of enormous importance to the Swift Parrots during their Winter Migration to the Mainland, particularly when there is little or no reliable flowering box gums in Victoria or the southern part of NSW.
The frequency of confirmed visits of Swift Parrots to the Leard State Forest, confirms that this is a most important foraging site during their winter migration.
The Swift Parrots have frequented the flowering Whitebox (Eucalyptus alben) in the Leard State Forest over many years in the past, as many as 29 times they have been recorded in the forest just east of the area of the proposed Maules Creek continuation project site.
The Swift Parrots are one of Australia’s priority 20 bird species for conservation action.
Rehabilitation by Maules Creek Coal will not mitigate the loss of foraging habitat in the Leard State Forest by this 'State Significant Development' (SSD) Continuation Project, due to the time it takes for rehabilitated Offsets to mature and produce adequate nectar or lerp's for nomadic foraging Swift Parrots.

Whitehaven Maules Creek is a valued customer to CR Mining powered by Epiroc, we have been privileged to be part of the number of community events that has been run by Maules Creek. Being a supplier to Maules Creek allows CR Mining powered by Epiroc to support our 450 staff in being able to deliver our products.
CR Mining has enjoyed working closely with Maules Creek to always seek out advanced innovations to assist in reducing impact to the environment and more efficient ways to extract the high-quality coal.

Mining is beneficial for the community of Gunnedah.

I am writing in a personal capacity to object to and to urge the Department to reject the Maules Creek continuation project on the basis of the unacceptable impact it will have on ecological connectivity within the Nandewar-Brigalow bioregion, its potential contribution to species extinction, unacceptable impacts on groundwater-dependent ecosystems and the broader community, impact on cultural heritage and the contradiction between increased emissions from the project and state, national and global efforts to mitigate climate change.
The Leard State Forest is a mosaic of ecosystems that provides vital connectivity between the Nandewar ranges to the North and the Namoi river despite the cumulative impacts of the Boggabri, Tarrawonga and Maules Creek mines that have destroyed more than a third of its extent. Should both this project and the Boggabri mine extension be approved that footprint would add up to nearly half of the forest, with mining extending right to the edge of the thin 500m biodiversity corridor that will not provide adequate protection due to edge effects including increased risks of invasive species predation, groundwater losses and impacts from blasting. The proposal will impact on Serious and Unavoidable Impact ecosystems and species that are in a rapid state of decline and cannot withstand further loss, including Box Gum Woodland, the regent honeyeater, and the swift parrot, a species that has been spotted in significant numbers on multiple occasions in the Leard State Forest over the course of the past fifteen years, notwithstanding its small population size of less than 500 individuals, demonstrating the importance of the forest as a persistent winter foraging site for the swift parrot. Without intervention including the protection of remaining foraging sites, the swift parrot is on track to extinction within a decade.
The Maules Creek mine was originally approved in 2012 on the basis that it would move into its rehabilitation phase in 2033. Much of the basis of its original approval, including that it would "not result in significant drawdown of the Maules Creek alluvial aquifer" and a pretence - since withdrawn and subject to varied conditioning - that it would be able to identify sufficient like-for-like habitat of sufficient quantity and quality to offset impacts on CEECs and threatened species, have either not been borne out by reality or are now contradicted by new impacts assessed as part of this application. It appears that by lodging this application eight years before the company wishes to rely on it, the company wishes to avoid assessment of any impacts that may become evident before then as well as future reforms such as the operation of the stricter "avoid and minimise" obligations from amendments to the Biodiversity Conservation Act and regulations to inform the achievement of NSW and the Commonwealth's climate goals - indeed both of these have been noted in the assessment documentation. Nevertheless, the application needs to be assessed against the NSW Net Zero Act.
Measures to avoid serious and irreversible impacts, despite the fact that the CEEC communities occur on the edges of the area proposed for the mine expansion, have not been seriously entertained, based solely on the fact that this would reduce the amount of coal that could be commercially extracted. This reflects a completely unbalanced approach to the mitigation hierarchy.
The mine will contribute to more than 3 million tonnes of Scope 1 emissions and over 230 million tonnes of emissions across its value chain, an amount equivalent to half of all of Australia's domestic emissions, in a context where climate change is already causing devastating environmental, social and economic impacts in the region and in NSW more broadly, yet no assessment has been made of whether the harms posed by the emissions from the project (and any liability that flows from those harms) are justified in the context of any benefits. There are inconsistencies in the greenhouse gas assessment, including an acknowledgement that the emissions intensity of production will increase as more overburden is moved and strip ratios increase later in the life of the project, but this is contradicted the modelled/forecast emissions intensities in the graphs. While the assessment documentation makes reference to Australia's reporting obligations under the Paris Agreement, the NSW planning framework relies on impact assessment, not reporting obligations. The recent decisions in DAMSHEG v Mach Energy and the advisory opinion from the ICJ concerning the obligations of states under instruments other than the Paris Agreement are both relevant.
The Department should take into account the company's terrible compliance history in determining whether any conditions attached to an approval are capable of mitigating impacts. In many instances (such as the bulldozing of foraging habitat during winter in circumstances where the company was applying for a variation and can't have been aware of their obligations), these non-compliances suggest a lack of interest in adhering to environmental obligations, or in the real-world ecological consequences of those breaches.
I urge the Department to reject this application.

I support this project as it is great for the surrounding towns, with jobs, donations, and money that it brings into the towns, which is adding value to the towns and the communities.

I support maules Creek mine to stay Open and continue operations until 2044.

It is good for the community and keeps Locals
employed.