MOD 3 - Pit 8 Extension

i believe the word is curtilege. there must be room to breath for us and the enviroment. corporations must not be allowed to intimidate

I am very sorry to see the continual expansion of the coal mines in our district on many levels including my belief in renewable energy, my concern for the environment and as a wild like carer my concern for the continues harm to our wildlife. In the last few months I have participated or been responsible for caring for wild life hurt by traffic going to and from the mine. My lady was a laughing kookaburra who was hit by a mine vehicle - a kind miner brought him to me and the next day a Galah similarly hurt and rescued. I managed to get both back into their wild life - but the kookaburra - who must be returned where they are picked up - was difficult -. After 2 weeks in care I returned him to a road near Ulan and beside Moolarben mine - in the distance we could see a gum tree . I set him off - over the rail line and was pleased to see he made it.
But many don’t !! Dozens of birds and kangaroos are killed by mine traffic each year in our district .
Please stop expanding them.

Your sincerely
Barbara Hickson
WIRES no 23053

Please advise receipt of submission

My family lives at 310 White Cedars Rd, Kains Flat and we have spend 27 years in this region. We frequently walk in the Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve and the Goulburn River National Park. Flora and Fauna are a very important asset to the region
- Impacts on the viability of these wild life sanctuaries are too greater risk.
- This modification is the 1st stage of a much larger expansion and should be assessed as a new project.

Please see attachment re objection to Wilpinjong Coal Mine Expansion 3

Please see my attached submission objecting to the proposed project.

I am writing to oppose th​is project.

Peabody Energy has an appalling environmental record.

They have proven they care nothing for the environment in Australia, only what they can extract from it. T​o​ ensure proper checks and balances this modification should be subject to an independent review.

As is, it is clearly another dishonest backdoor attempt by Peabody to bypass more stringent environmental protections.​

Just in the last few years Peabody has -

1. been charged with criminal offences for polluting Australia's oldest national park, which it has pleaded guilty to. Coal pollution still washes up ​on the lawns of the historic Audley Pleasure grounds after every flood. For this Peabody were fined $500,000, including costs. This fine was pitiful, the coal discharged will never be removed from this river. It turned out to be cheaper for Peabody to pollute than to pay to remove the sludge legally.
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/8562111/peabody-pleads-guilty-to-epa-charges-over-creek-pollution/
The Land and Environment Court determination: https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/195b6213fad722119d769b77

2. Peabody has also consistently featured on the list of top ten tax avoiders in Australia. In 2023 the company made $29 billion and paid no tax.
https://michaelwest.com.au/top-40-tax-dodgers-of-2023

3. Peabody shows a consistent pattern of bad faith negotiation with workers. In 2019 Peabody forced to backpay staff $3 million at their Coppabella mine in central Queensland after a Fair Work Commission inquiry:
https://meu.org.au/extra-15-minutes-adds-up-to-3m-backpay-win-at-coppabella/

In April 2024 the Federal court found Peabody unfairly sacked 22 union workers at Helensburgh - and they had to spent years in the courts fighting this illegal action by the company
https://meu.org.au/win-for-permanent-jobs-federal-court-rules-that-helensburgh-coal-sackings-not-genuine-redundancies/

In 2025 they locked workers out of the mine rather than fairly negotiate contracts.
https://meu.org.au/standover-tactics-helensburgh-lockout-extended-to-almost-three-weeks/

Peabody appealed the decision and lost in the Federal court:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-06/high-court-upholds-helensburgh-coal-sacked-workers-ruling/105618052
The High Court found the workers could have been redeployed within the mine - but contract (labour hire) mine workers were kept on instead.
https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/HCA/2025/29.html
Illawarra Mercury: https://archive.md/4Iq5K

4. Peabody lied to the Australian Clean Energy Regulator about it's emissions in 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/31/australian-regulator-finds-large-scale-emissions-misreporting-by-coalminer-peabody

5. ​Peabody was sued by its own investors for lying, in a class action lawsuit, where former employees said the company "had a culture of “cutting corners” and pushing safety boundaries before the spontaneous combustion of its best Australian mine",
https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/insiders-rat-on-peabody-over-australian-mine-fire-20210323-p57dga

Peabody settled the false and misleading statements to investors case:
https://www.labaton.com/cases/in-re-peabody-energy-corp
The settlement was worth over $4.6 million https://www.bermantabacco.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/peabodyenergycorp-notice.pdf

6. ​Peabody is currently mining directly underneath Woronora Reservoir where reports of large scale subsidence cracking has occurred,​ to the extent that the government's own appointed independent consultants are stating the supply of water could be compromised
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-23/concerns-of-unreported-fracturing-under-water-catchment/102136020

7. ​Peabody is currently implicated in a "coal quality" scandal, accused of deliberately falsifying test results in order to fraudulently increase the sale price,
https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/anglo-peabody-glencore-targeted-in-fake-coal-claims-20221121-p5bzzq
https://michaelwest.com.au/coal-producer-peabody-implicated-in-fake-coal-quality-scandal-pwc-looks-the-other-way/
https://michaelwest.com.au/coal-cover-up-wilkie-points-to-glencore-anglo-peabody-macbank/

8. ​Peabody has also been outed as the world's biggest funder of climate change denial organisations,
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/13/peabody-energy-coal-mining-climate-change-denial-funding

9. ​The company went to court to try to prove its climate change denial was legitimate, that carbon pollution was positive, and should be subsidised, not taxed (it lost),
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/may/11/coal-made-its-best-case-against-climate-change-and-lost

10. ​Peabody destroyed the water supply of the Navajo people after Peabody's Black Mesa and Kayenta mines pumped billions of gallons of groundwater from the Navajo Aquifer, one of the Navajo people's only potable sources of water.
https://ieefa.org/resources/effects-mining-activity-black-mesas-n-aquifer-go-unacknowledged
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2023/08/29/report-blames-government-peabody-mining-co-coal-mines-depleted-black-mesa-aquifer/70672711007/

1​2. ​Peabody was prosecuted and convicted here by the EPA for botched mine blasting https://www.australianmining.com.au/nsw-epa-takes-wambo-coal-mine-to-court-over-botched-blast/

13. In 2013 Peabody took the US EPA to court in an attempt to overturn EPA limits on mercury and other emissions from coal-fired power plants.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/10/us-supreme-court-epa-carbon-emissions

​This company cannot be trusted.

This application is not a modification, and it should not be assessed as a modification.

The biodiversity impacts are well known. Impact on key species are unacceptable: two critically endangered ecological communities (CEEC) and eleven endangered fauna species, including Regents Honeyeater and Koalas.

​Enough is enough. This mine should be remediating, not engaging in ongoing damage.

Moolarben Coal Mine is proposing to expand its open cut mine closer to The Munghorn. This extension poses a critical threat to a local Koala population and critical habitat associated with those Koala populations.
There is scant recognition of the existence of healthy Koala populations in the MWRC area, despite citizen scientist reports throughout the area and work done by researchers such as Dr. Kellie Leigh from Science For Wildlife. Koalas have been recorded in the footprint of the Moolarben Coal Mine, including in the middle of a proposed pit. Drone footage has revealed several Koalas in the area, including a female carrying a juvenile Koala. This is irrefutable evidence that a Koala population exists in the area and that breeding has occurred.
The proposed extension would clear over 113 ha of Koala habitat. Loss of habitat in NSW is a critical issue for the survival of Koalas, a species listed as Endangered.
The proponents have not fully utilised allowable mining of coal in previously approved areas, so the application for an extension is not justified.
This extension, if approved, will cause a significant severance of the continuity of Koala habitat and movement corridors in the Munghorn area
The further generation of many millions of tonnes of life cycle emissions, significantly contributing to climate change is a further contributing threat to Koala survival.

I support the residents of Wollar and object to proposed unconscionable expansion of the Wilpinjong coal mine.
Key points of objection:
1. Releasing over 25 MT of additional Greenhouse Gas emissions
2. First stage of a bigger mine expansion and should be assessed as a new project
3. Mining to the boundary of Wollar Village
4. Disturbing an additional 155 ha:
• loss of Aboriginal cultural heritage and spiritual landscape for Wiradjuri Nation
• destroying more important habitat for the nationally threatened Large-eared
Pied Bat, Eastern Cave Bat, Regent Honeyeater and Koala
5. Permanently altering and degrading alluvial groundwater sources and surface flows in
the Wollar Creek catchment.
6. Increasing pollution through poorly assessed noise, dust, blasting, onsite coal ignition
(spontaneous combustion), lighting and water contamination
7. Increasing social impacts, loss of amenity and ongoing disturbance of rural way of life
8. Slowing the transition to clean energy future – competing with the Central West
Renewable Energy Zone that starts at Wollar
9. This project is not needed to provide regional jobs – there is a huge workforce shortage
for renewable energy projects in the Central West
10. There is no economic justification, the increased climate change impacts will cost more
than public income generated through royalties and taxes

Please see attached file.

I support the Wilpinjong Mine submission to extend coal operations to late 2033. Wilpinjong Coal has injected a huge amount of monetary value into the Mid Western Community in terms of providing employment and supporting community organisations, local schools and sporting groups. My children attend Mudgee Public School and Mudgee High School and these schools have benefitted from monetary support provided by Wilpinjong.
The Doctors4Mudgee Region program has been a great initiative and it is wonderful to see GP's again in Gulgong. Being in the health industry, it has been a very stressful time with the Dr shortage and many individuals have been unable to see a GP locally. This has really affected the timely delivery of necessary health care. As a physiotherapist I can refer people for an MRI however it is not covered by Medicare and so it costs individuals $280. For some conditions, a GP can refer for a bulk billed MRI. However, with indiduals not being able to see a GP this has meant many have not been able to access the imaging they need to assist in their diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries and conditions.
Stride Health is a supplier of physiotherapy, exercise physiology and fitness services to Wilpinjong Coal and its contractors. We play an important role in the management of acute work related injuries and maitaining a healthy workforce. This provision of services has allowed me to provide employment for many individuals. Also, it has meant I have been able to provide sponsorship to local rugby, rugby league, touch, netball and basketball associations/clubs.

Our business provides predominantly auto electrical, air conditioning and mechanical services in the Mudgee region. Wilpinjong Coal has been a long-standing customer of our business and secures employment for many of our local employees. The undispuable statistics highlight the immense financial and community benefits provided by both Wilpinjong and mining in the Mudgee region and as such we are in support of the extension being granted.

We, FLSmidth support Peabody's application to extend it's mining operations at Wilpingong.

This project extends the lift of Wilpinjong mine, creating job stability for myself, colleagues and friends. Wilpinjong is also a responsible miner prioritising rehabilitation and environmental compliance. This project has major economic benefits for the local communities, state and country.

I object to the proposed 'extension' of Wilpinjong Mine

I am concerned about the following aspects of the proposal. Firstly, this is a coal mining extension at a time when we know climate change is already happening across all the oceans and land globally. The intensification of natural hazards as a result of climate change, and the likelihood that we've already crossed tipping points for significant changes to our world from anthropogenic climate change, warrants more action to stop this process, rather than an approval of more coal extraction. The proposal will release an estimated 25 million tonnes of greenhouse gases and move us further away from a just transition.
Australia has shocking rates of native vegetation clearance and this extension will further disrupt local ecosystems. If approved, an additional 155 hectares of ecologically significant habitat and productive farmland will be disturbed.

Connections to Country will be challenged by intensifying coal extraction as the integrity of local environments and non-human habitat will be threatened.
Taken together with other coal mine approvals for the area, the cumulative impact of this proposal need to be considered. Piecemeal assessment processes obscure the breadth and depth of the impacts on local habitats, including for koala, the regent honeyeater and the large-eared pied bat. Further, the hydrological disturbance from the proposed changes are underrated in the proposal. The waterways in this region are already severally affected by mining and this intensification will damage surface and groundwater systems further.
A just transition should be NSW government's focus in resource management, not deeper and broader coal mining activities, even if companies assert that these can be sustainable. As we continue to see multi-scaled impacts from coal mines around the world, clearly, they are not.

There is no reason for the Wilpinjong Mine to expand until 2033, as the power stations it supplies should be shutting down before then.
The proposed expansion is closer to the village, increasing the damage and pollution risk to the remaining population, some of whom had been planning to return when the original expiry date of 2026 had been reached – only next year! Not only would the constant blasting and risk of spontaneous combustion rule out any reclamation of the village after 2033 (if it stops there, even!), but the damage to the environment, already at risk of losing endangered species by habitat loss and pollution, and likewise, to groundwater supplies, in a continent which needs to cherish every drop of water, cannot be contemplated, EVEN IF the mine concerned was an Australian holding and not an American concern. A further concern is the loss of irreplaceable cultural heritage, which is of enormous importance to the Wiradjuri Nation.
This should rightly be considered as a new project, which would require an independent review, not a box-ticking expansion exercise, as the damage done to the water systems and the wildlife, many species of which are already threatened or vulnerable, is not recoverable in the future, and the process should stop as planned, in 2026, before the point of no return is reached.

The continuation of the life of Wilpinjong mine until 2033 is pivotal to continued stability and security for families in Mudgee. The mine employs thousands of individuals, many of whom have children in local schools and spouses in key areas such as health and education. The mine makes a significant contribution to the local community and I fully support it's continued operation.

If government are serious about supporting vibrant, viable regional communities then they need to support the industries that provide employment that underpins the viable functioning of these communities. On this basis i am supporting the Wilpinjong Modification