My husband and I object to the expansion of the Martins Creek quarry for the following reasons.
* We have great concerns for the condition of the Gostwyck Bridge, it has been having full time major restoration work for at least the past two years. They are presently working on it during the evening from around 6pm until 1am in the morning four nights a week. This work impacts on our home life with the noise keeping us awake at night.
* If more trucks are crossing the bridge daily then the maintenance on the bridge will be continual, it wasn't built to cope with so much heavy traffic.
* All traffic crossing the bridge is meant to be at a speed of 40km, although I do not own a radar it is obvious that most vehicles are going much faster than 40km. I have witnessed trucks hit the bridge at high speeds from either direction and as it is a one way bridge there are many instances of trucks locking up their brakes as they approach too fast and then right of way traffic enters the bridge from the other side. From my lounge room and back verandah I have an excellent view of the give way approach to the bridge. The more trucks on the road then the more this will happen it will only be a matter of time before there is a major accident and god forbid anyone should end up off the bridge and into the river.
* At present we are kept awake until 1am due to bridge works and then the trucks start to roll through one after the other from 6 am, 5hours sleep is not enough for anyone. Lack of sleep leads to poor concentration that can cause fatigue on the roads and in the work place, it also bad for your health.
* We have concerns for our home, we can hear and feel blasting from the quarry and have many cracks in our walls and nails popping out of our ceiling which we feel are a result of the quarry. If the quarry hours of operation are expanded we fear that our home will suffer more extensive damage.
* We also are concerned for our safety when we leave and enter our driveway onto Dungog road.
* We are concerned for our safety when shopping in Paterson, more trucks will make it harder to safely get in and out of your car.
* At present when freight trains go through Paterson the trucks can be backed right up to Tucker Park. If the expansion goes through there will be more trucks and more freight trains blocking the roads at Martins Creek and Paterson. This will slow down all of our commuting to work and school, we live in a rural area we have long drives every day, our roads are not well maintained freeways. They are narrow and poorly maintained and made worse by excessive trucks using them.
* Damaged roads cause damage to our cars, large potholes cause tyre, rim and suspension problems and damaged pavement leads to stones and rocks being flung from vehicles especially trucks causing windscreen damage.
* As it is now the quarry is tolerable but we are against any further expansion firstly due to road safety and road conditions that are already poor and then due to the impact on our own personal life due to our close proximity to the Gostwyck Bridge, Dungog rd and the Martins Creek Quarry.
We are also concerned about devaluation of our property.

23/11/2016
* * *
Scott & Selina McDonald
134 Paterson Road
Bolwarra, NSW 2320
NSW Department of Planning
Dear Sir/Madam,
We oppose the Martins Creek Quarry Expansion - Application No SSD-16-6612.
Because the increase in the number of trucks and also the proposed increase to the dispatch of road transport hours from 5:30am to 7:00pm Monday to Saturday (6 days per week), this means these trucks will start coming past our place on Paterson Road Bolwarra at approximately 4:00am, normally a very quiet time on Paterson Road.
These trucks are loud at the best on times and especially when travelling empty in the early hours of the morning to the Martins Creek Quarry. This noise will directly affect the sleep patterns and health for those in our home.
The last trucks of the day will be coming past our place at approximately 8:00pm each night for six days a week. So the noise from these trucks will be relentless with our only respite being one day per week. Not good for anyone's physical or mental health and will lead to fatigue which is a major contributing cause to injuries and death on New South Wales roads.
It is worth pointing out that there will only be approximately eight hours between the last truck in the evening and this first truck the next morning. Industry standards state that a worker must have a ten hour break between shifts something that won't happen to us if this expansion is approved.
In addition the increase in these trucks and operating hours will also make it more hazardous when we are trying to enter or leave our property during normal hours as the trucks are very large and difficult to stop in case of an emergency on an already very busy road which isn't designed for this proposed increased volume of heavy vehicle traffic.






Your faithfully
Scott & Selina McDonald

I object to the proposal to expand the Martins Creek quarry to 1.5 million tonnes per annum.
My principal reasons are:
1. The increased truck traffic between Martins Creek and Paterson inevitably associated with any expansion will makes this section of road more difficult to transit and more intimidating to drivers than it already is. The issue is exacerbated by the single lane Goswyck Bridge that all trucks have to cross.
2. The increased truck traffic will make it difficult to move around in Paterson from shop to shop. The size of the trucks, the frequency of trucks during the recent production increase, the speed of trucks through the centre of the village, trucks turning the right angle bend in the centre of the shopping area and the noise add to the feeling of helplessness, especially for we older citizens. There is no concern shown in the EIS for the traffic issues in Paterson.

3. The prospects for rehabilitation of this quarry are concerning. The proponent states an intention to produce 1.5 million tonnes of product for 25 years. Where are the reserves for such a production rate? My calculation of the actual reserves puts the potential extractable tonnage closer to 14 million tonnes.

4. This will not sustain the quarry for that time period.

5. NSW has a poor record of rehabilitating old mining/quarry sites. There is nothing indicated in this EIS that the proponent would actually undertake the work despite the array of staged plans. Anyone with a knowledge of quarry operations can deduce that virtually no rehabilitation is possible during the active life of the quarry. It will be mostly have to be done on abandonment. This is likely to happen much sooner as the reserves are limited, and on past history, the operator walks away. There needs to be a binding bond up front to guarantee that funding is there to rehabilitate the quarry. Proper rehabilitation of that site will require millions of dollars. Who is to pay for that?

6. Since I completed my reserve estimate and forwarded a brief report to the MCQAG on 22 November 2016, I have come into possession of a copy of a 1990 geological report on a proposed quarry in Lot 5, prepared by C. Adamson, Consulting Geologist to the State Rail Authority.
7. Adamson's reserve estimates, determined from drilling not reported in the latest EIS, was that proven reserves in Lot 5 were 8 million tonnes, and probable reserves within the same Lot 5, and surrounding the proven reserves, were an additional 12.2 million tonnes. A good proportion of those reserves have since been extracted.
8. The Andesite was much thicker in Lot 5, ranging between at least 30m and 44m. Adamson indicated it thinning to the southeast towards the old quarry. Adamson also discussed variations in rock quality which I have ignored in determining likely reserves in order to maximise the possible quantity of quarryable rock. Given that the andesite has a lesser thickness in Lot 6, my calculated estimate of 14 million tonnes of rock left in Lots 5 and 6, and north of the old railways quarry (East Pit area) is of the same order as Adamson's calculations for Lot 5.

9. The proponent claims the deposit is rare. That is utter rubbish. The geological sequence of which the Martins Creek Andesite is a part stretches from Raymond Terrace to Rouchel. A glance at the geological maps will confirm that. This site was set up as a quarry because it was to help in construction/maintenance of railway lines. That does not make it rare. Andesite is a commonly quarried material in NSW. DPI statistics indicate this. It is also worth noting that quarries in similar rock were set up near Kiama, and on the Liverpool range for railway purposes, and they were also linked to rail. The nearby Brandy Hill quarry is operating in the same geological volcanic sequence.

10. The reality is the production from Martins Creek could more than adequately be covered by other quarries in the region if it were to close completely. In the overall production of quarry materials its contribution is not large. And it has a freight disadvantage for major infrastructure projects planned closer to Newcastle, when compared with other quarries in the region. I am not advocating its closure as it does provide a useful function locally. I am urging that its production rate be limited to a much lower amount than that proposed in the EIS.

11. I saw the impact on the area when the quarry ran at 1.1 million tonnes for one year. It made life very difficult in Paterson. That rate is too high and I am calling for it to be set much lower A rate of around 600,000 tonnes per annum should be enough to maintain profitable operations and ameliorate conditions for surrounding residents, for example.

12. Of course if the bulk of product, or any increase above 600,000 tonnes per annum went out on rail as it once did, then the argument changes, but the EIS argues why rail cannot be used. It certainly does not argue how it could be. Perhaps this should be re-investigated by an independent party.
In closing I add that I have spent my working life entirely associated with the minerals industry as a geologist and geotechnical engineer. I acknowledge the need for activities such as quarrying, but there also has to be a balance between the community and such operations. Recent years have seen community and environmental issues outweighed by economic needs. Profit making is fine. Our society needs it. But this little part of society around Paterson would be thrown to the wolves just like Bulga, Camberwell, Ravensworth, and Warkworth should this proposal obtain approval for such increased production.

I object to the proposed expansion of removal of material from Martins Creek quarry , based on the following. As a local resident I am siuck of the appalling road conditions along the main haul routes

Gostwyck Bridge is a potential disaster waiting to happen. In the last 2 years I have witnessed or been part of a potential disaster as trucks leaving Martins Creek have forced northbound vehicles already between the bridge and the give way sign/orange warning lights to reverse off the bridge. This is unacceptable.

In 2015 a young platypus was found dead in the creek which drains from the quarry to the Paterson river. The platypus had unsightly skin lesions which could be attributed to the often milky coloured water coming down the creek.

The area to be cleared for the expansion of the quarry is part of an area which has a reasonable localised population of the threatened brushtailed phascogyle.

Many large extractive industries operating in small communities and impacting on the surrounding communities have a significant contibution (either monetary, material or labour) into those communities. I have no knowledge of this occurring in the case at hand.

The extent of blasting and repercussions of this blasting have increased dramatically. I could not understand why our back verandah concrete had cracked over the last few years until listening to people at the meeting in Paterson recently and hearing of the damage caused to their homes.

The passage through Pateron village is not suited to the number of trucks passing through it now let alone coping with an increase to 80 movements per hour. There is no pedestrian crossing/lights anywhere. I recently followed a truck coming from the quarry travelling at 95 k/hour to the N of Paterson, crossing the centreline at the PO by 2 metres and doing 60km/hr by the lagoon after straightening out the corner by the old rectory.

I oppose any expansion to martins creek quarry, I live at 256 dungog rd martins creek and my name is Scott Meehan.
I live through the current hell daracon calls working within their current approvals? Which I highly doubt, excessive truck movements all of which are on air brakes straight past my front door every day, cowboy contractors driving recklessly putting local residents in danger, I wonder when the fatality will occur not if, and that's at the moment.
Daracon hold no regard for operating within their working guidelines and blatantly disregard them, this is fact. They as a company are not and have never operated within the guidelines of their approvals, no regard for near residents who have to live with their actions. Blasting to the point my new shed slab has cracked to the point it needs pulling up, who pays for that?
The dust has its own issues, I see thick plumes rising in the air every day I come home, straight over the quarry, we can't hang clothes outside ever as the dust just coats everything. The noise of dozer tracks rattling, trays banging, drills and blasting make life hell as it is, no way ever should they be even doing what they do already. I believe out of all the residents I will be affected the most as the new entrance will be 400m from my front door!!!!
No way, not ever will this expansion be approved and if it does I think a reshuffle and sackings of the current planning department needs to be done, it seems like collusion I'd say at this point.
No way will this be approved on my doorstep.
Yours in good faith
Scott Meehan

Please see attached pdf

GP Staines Watercart Hire
Gregory Staines
0414 792 802


DIRECTOR RESOUCRE ASSESSMENTS

c/-The Secretary
NSW Department of Planning and Environment
GPO Box 39
SYDNEY NSW 2001
DATE: November 2016

Martins Creek Quarry Project SSD 14_6612 - Letter of Support

Dear Sir
G.P.Staines Watercart Hire would like to register our support for the Martins Creek Quarry Project.
We are contracted by Daracon to provide Grader and Watercart services. We have a long standing relationship of 18 years with Daracon, primarily in the Sydney area. As Daracon continues to grow, they are helping sole traders like me grow too. Without the support of Daracon our business would not be as fortunate.

G.P. Staines Watercart Hire confirms it support for the Martins Creek Quarry Project

Yours sincerely

Gregory Staines