Four Southern Highlands land owners have launched a David and Goliath court battle against Hume Coal, in a bid to stop the mining company drilling on their land.
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Peter Martin and three of his Sutton Forest neighbours are taking the Korean-owned company to the NSW Land and Environment Court (LEC), in a last-ditch attempt to block access to their properties and prevent potentially damaging exploratory drilling.
It’s a dog-eat-dog fight and we’re not about to let Hume Coal trample over our rights...
The group will argue the company should be banned from entering their properties under a clause in the Mining Act (1992) preventing exploration licence holders from accessing lands with ‘‘significant improvements’’ without the written consent of the owner.
It will be the first time the rule has been tested in court.
‘‘These properties have had an enormous amount of money spent on them and the mining company believes they can just bowl on, drill holes and it is the land owners’ problem,’’ Mr Martin said.
‘‘What they’re proposing is completely outrageous. We feel very confident that we’re in the right legally on this issue of significant improvements.’’
Mr Martin’s 43.5 hectare property is home to a 2400-tree truffiere, lucerne crops and more than eight hectares of landscaped gardens, ponds and a lake.
His neighbours, Kathy and John Roche, own an Olympic-standard equestrian eventing course featuring 160 specialised jumps, tracks and dressage area.
‘‘There has been hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent over 20 years on that property, on the quality of ground for the horses,’’ Mr Martin said.
‘‘These are not like properties you might find in western NSW with grass and large expanses of land running cattle and sheep. These are real estate, as well as businesses.’’
The LEC hearing is scheduled to run for five days from September 14.
The result should put to bed the long-running dispute between Hume Coal and Sutton Forest land owners over access to their lands.
The case follows a decision earlier in the year by the Southern Highlands Coal Action Group, of which Mr Martin is convener, to fight in the LEC against government approval for Hume Coal to drill 25 exploration boreholes in Sutton Forest.
The decision in that case is yet to be handed down.
In a frustrating twist, land owners are being forced to continue the process with Hume Coal despite the pending court decisions.
However, Mr Martin is determined they will not take the fight lying down.
‘‘It’s a dog-eat-dog fight and we’re not about to let Hume Coal trample over our rights and our properties to explore for coal,’’ he said.
