Seaham Quarry Project

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I object to the Seaham Quarry Project. This project will damage local flora and fauna, and will have an adverse impact on air and water quality, which is already an issue throughout the hunter region. It will cause increased truck traffic and adversely impact the rural community, creating new safety concerns regarding the intersection of Italia road and the Pacific highway.

As a frequent visitor to my grandmother's home at Balickera, I strongly oppose the Seaham Quarry Project due to its unresolved social and environmental issues. The repeated quarry proposals unfairly burden our community with little public consultation and no thorough alternatives considered.

The project threatens habitats of koalas and other endangered species, undermining Hunter Water's efforts to protect the Southern Myotis and Eastern Cave Bat. The proposed 24-hour operations will harm the Balickera community and wildlife through pollution, blasting, artificial lighting, vibrations, and noise.

The project's impact on groundwater and surface water in the Grahamstown catchment remains uncertain, risking water pollution. Traffic impacts will be extensive, and the Italia Road Upgrade will worsen hazardous conditions at key intersections. Haulage routes will increase greenhouse gas emissions and endanger public safety on the Pacific Highway.

Approving the Seaham Quarry Project is irresponsible and poses significant risks to our current and future community. The environmental damage and community burden are too great to ignore.

I object to the Seaham Quarry Project.
I live in the MidCoast Region and Port Stephens is my neighbour.
I am well aware the MidCoast Council has called on the Dept of Planning to come up with Strategic and Conservation for Quarry development and I know people who live in Balickera who are facing multiple quarry developments.
The Seaham Quarry expansion will cause many burdens on the community and the environment. Those burdens are and will be felt in our region too.
The Balickera area is high in biodiversity and is in the Grahamstown Water Catchment. Thousands of people rely on that water. The area is of Aboriginal Cultural Significance - the landscape carries songlines and cultural history.
All of this will be lost - we are in a climate emergency where mitigation measures, including replantings will have little likelihood of success.
The traffic impacts from the Quarry are simply unacceptable and unsafe for the wider public. There has been no public consultation on the projected impacts so many quarry vehicles will have on the Bucketts Way, Tarean Road overpass and Medowie Road intersections.
The proposed roadworks are nothing more than a short cut measure to direct their haulage vehicles north out of Italia Road to make a u turn at Karuah so they can resume their journey south. How many people will be inconvenienced by this?
I'm angry because the public outcry about the current numbers of hard rock quarries in our region is not being taken seriously by the Planning Department. Public consultation seems to fall on deaf ears.
No matter what the Seaham Quarry Project promises in terms of mitigating impacts, those impacts cannot be resolved especially when so many other quarries are being approved.
The Project should be refused.

I object to the quarry going ahead due to the increase in trucks and other traffic movements; working 24 hours per day, 7 days a week; impacting the carbon foot print; negative impact of native flora and fauna; and the impact on hunter water ways.

Tomaree Ratepayers and Residents Association Inc. (TRRA) objects to the Seaham Quarry Project.
Many social and environmental issues raised by this proposal remain unresolved.
The number of recent or pending quarry development proposals in a small area near this one pose an unfair burden on the community and on Council - with little or no effective public consultation or examination of cumulative impacts and alternatives.
The Seaham Quarry Project will impact an area of known koala and other threatened species habitat and threaten the efforts of Hunter Water to protect the two threatened microbat species Southern Myotis and Eastern Cave Bat.
24 hour operations will intensify impacts on the Balickera community and on native wildlife through airborne pollution, increased frequency of blasting, artificial lighting, vibrations and noise from haulage vehicles.
It is not acceptable for uncertainty to remain about changed groundwater flows and surface water interaction resulting from the Project. Watercourses in the Grahamstown catchment must remain unpolluted.
Traffic impacts will be felt far and wide and the current Italia Road Upgrade proposal will only exacerbate the unsafe traffic conditions at the Bucketts Way and Medowie Road intersections to the Pacific Highway.
Greenhouse gas emissions will increase due to haulage vehicles being directed to take a longer route to reach their market. Those trucks will inevitably endanger the wider public who use the Pacific Highway.
It is not responsible to approve the Seaham Quarry as the risks it poses to the community are too high and unfairly placed not only on today's community, but our future generations of residents.
This proposal should be refused.
We have no objection to this submission being published, in full and unredacted.
Contact: [email protected]

I object to the Seaham Quarry Project because I believe that it will cause irreparable damage to the flora and fauna in and around the Seaham and Balickera area. I often spend time at my grandmas house at Balickera, and I am worried impacts of the quarry on the air and water quality. This could also effect the drinking water catchment area which provides drinking water for the whole Hunter region and the dust could also effect our personal water tank quality. I am also worried about driving on the Italia road and nearly being hit by big trucks rushing past me.

I've only just learned that the objections deadline for the Project was today, the Department has done a poor job in communicating the planning process to the general public.

I object to the Seaham Quarry Project on the following grounds –

I am a MidCoast Resident aware of the relentless expansion of the quarry industry in our area.

Limeburners Creek Quarry was recently just approved down the road from me – the traffic and environmental impacts from that development will be sorely felt by the community.

The Port Stephens Council area is our next door neighbour – we share the same roads, go to the same community events, and enjoy the rural amenity of our neighbourhoods.

Our Councils highly value and work to protect the natural environment and are encouraging rural communities to diversify and capitalise on a nature based economy. This will benefit not only the environment, but also the economic prosperity of our region. No tourist facility can feasibly operate near a quarry.

Strategically inept planning for hard rock quarry expansion, which we continue to witness, will disrupt the welfare of our rural environment.

The Seaham Quarry Project, if approved will directly contribute to dangerous driving conditions for the community who rely on access to the Pacific Highway. We face a climate emergency and it is simply unacceptable that if the Project is approved quarry trucks will take a longer route than necessary for deliveries.

In fact the Project reads like it’s the same old same old: there is no mention of sustainability principles or what will happen to the land after quarry operations or the amount of carbon emissions released from land clearing and forest clearing.

The effects of the Quarry expansion will further diminish the social amenity and health of Balickera residents and the wider community. The quarry plans to expand in the catchment for Grahamstown Dam, where pollution spills cumulatively will over time threaten drinking water, and there will obviously be edge effects to the wildlife corridors that connect the ecologically diverse hinterland of Port Stephens to the Lower MidCoast.

Technology is advancing, there are replacement materials for hard rock quarry products. No mention is made about this.

I strongly object to the Seaham Quarry Project. I do not believe the Project is in the community’s best interest – now and into the future when most of the impacts will be felt.

Yours faithfully,

Dominique Jacobs.

To whom it may concern, I’m objecting to this proposal as it will severely affect our lives in so many ways, we have been listening to the sound of the crushing for so many years now and it sounds like it is in our bedroom when there is a southern wind blowing or a very still night, but also my husband is a shift worker and it also affects his sleep!! The dust that we indure is overwhelming and adding an extra hours will mean more, the gutters become muddy and don’t believe it could be good for us what is going in our water !!We also believe that our land value will fall if we decide to sell , we just like our peace and quiet, we believe that the traffic situation is also will increase!! We have been living here for (myself) 36 years and my husband all of his life so it always has been home and now there is 5 generations are here. Last but not least the impact on the wildlife and fauna will also have to affected in some way,please don’t let greed and money ruin our life and the lives and environment of our future.

This is a lovely communal area with many who do not appreciate the existing quarry and strongly oppose future development. My family has a farm in this area and from the farm we can noticeably feel the vibrations and hear the sound continuously throughout the day. Many residents are extremely worried about the health effects of living next to a quarry. The existing forest is beautiful and it is the reason why many choose to move here.

Please see attached file

Objection letter attached

Objection due to environmental, as well as community amenity and road safety concerns.

I object to the proposed Seaham Quarry Project. See attached support document.

I 100% object to the extension to the Boral Quarry. Since moving to East Seaham in 2002, the level of traffic on Italia Road has increased exponentially. There is traffic from the Medowie/Bay area morning and night heading to/from jobs in the Valley. There is also traffic diverting via Italia Road towards Maitland to miss the bottleneck at Hexham. Italia Road is in an atrocious condition and, although there has been some roadworks in the recent past, there are kilometres of patched potholed road which is very dangerous. I regularly come across vehicles coming in the opposite direction sitting over the centre line to avoid the potholes and washed out edges of the road. This includes semitrailers. To add more trucks and semis to the mix is extremely dangerous. I am surprised there hasn't been a serious accident/fatality along Italia Road to date (that I am aware of) due to the narrow road and unacceptable road condition.

Gloucester Environment Group's submission of Objection to the Seaham Quarry Project is attached.

I wish to make several comments as a landowner in the vicinity of the proposed quarry extension.

Firstly, my main concern is the operation of the quarry operating 24 hours a day, from the acoustic assessment it is clear that noise from the site at night would be intrusive at my location, where a logger was placed.
Boral has been receptive to discussions in the past regarding blasts and noise mitigation and I hope this would continue as the potential for more quarries in the area would have cumulative effects.
Of concern is the segmentation of wildlife corridors in the area such as the Raymond Terrace to Wallaroo corridor. If Boral are to clear the western side of Seaham hill, Koalas and Eastern Quolls as such would be limited to mating partners, therefore rehabilitation works should be carried out on parts of quarry that are no longer in use and be restricted to plant movements.
I would also request that Boral form a consultative committee for discussions with affected members to mitigate complaints and also for the community to understand the process of actual quarrying works and progress in rehabilitation works.

As a general comment with the population growing around the state and the need of roads and associated quarry products it is essential that quarries are allowed to operate, but it is imperative that they do so to the highest environmental standards including acoustic testing, dust mitigation and forest regeneration.

see attachment

I have lived on Italia Rd for over 30 years. The trucks from the quarry do not conform to current conditions now so the disruptions to our lives will be all night and day if the hours of use are expanded
The current conditions on the quarry -
1. Trucks are not to use western end of Italia Rd. Trucks are regulary using the road. I am woken between 6-6:30 most mornings by empty trucks banging and rattling past my house going to the quarry. I know trucks going to local locations can use the road. There are not this many local activities.
2. Trucks are supposed to turn left when they get to the corner of Italia Rd and Pacific Highway. I am regualrly queued behind 1-3 trucks waiting to turn right at the highway.
Trucks from Boral are not following current conditions and its disrupting the life of people that live on the road. The road is not up to the conditions required for truck movements. There are many narrow sections with drop offs, the truck take up more than half the road, This is extrememly dangerous, especially when the oncoming traffic is a caravan or other larger vehicle. GPS send lots of vehicles down Italia Rd especially schools holidays.

We have lived in the immediate vicinity of the quarry for over 20 years. The expansion / extension of the quarry is not in line with the rural aspect of the area, the infrastructure is not adequate to accommodate the truck movements, and this causes serious safety concerns.
The expansion will also cause additional noise and dust and generally reduce the amenity of the local area.