Community opposes Baralaba South Mine plans to build on flood plain and prime

A rural town in Queensland’s coal country is fighting the development of a US-owned mine it says will destroy thousands of hectares of prime agricultural land and pollute a major river system.

US insurance giant Liberty Mutual plans to build a coal mine 8 kilometres south of Baralaba, about 120km south-west of Rockhampton, and 500 metres from the Dawson River.

The mining lease for the mine covers a 2,214-hectare stretch of land on a major flood plain, of which half is on what the Queensland Government has zoned as strategic cropping land.

At full production, the Baralaba South Mine project would mine up to 6 million tonnes per year of run-of-mine coal to produce up to 3.5Mt/yr of pulverised coal injection and thermal coal product for up to 40 years.

Landowners in the area say this will be catastrophic come the next major flooding event, despite the mine’s plan to build levee banks.

Less than a kilometre from the proposed mine is Bronny and Paul McLellan’s property — prime agricultural land that backs on to the Dawson River.

They said the levee banks would turn smaller floods into major floods.

“It’s not just low water, it’s dangerously high current flowing water … it will be massive.”

In 2010 the couple were impacted by the worst flood the region had ever seen, and the water was so high cattle were floating on the tops of the McLellans’ lychee trees before being taken to safety.

“We can handle a flood every 50 years, or 100 years, that’s nature. But we can’t handle a flood every few years,” Ms McLellan said.

“I couldn’t go through that one again.”

‘You can’t eat coal’: Former miner opposed to mine

Mr McLellan has spent more than 20 years in mining and, although he supported the industry, he opposed this mine’s location.

Liberty Mutual also operates Baralaba North mine, 5km north of Baralaba.

“Keep it going in the right place, nothing wrong with it,” Mr McLellan said.

“But over here, it’s just a no brainer.”

Mr McLellan said the proposed project made no sense for the community, and instead of bringing jobs it would waste precious agricultural land.

“You can’t eat coal,” he said.

Survey finds 97pc of community against mine

The Baralaba community has a population of about 300 people, mostly farmers and miners who are employed at numerous mines in the region.

A recent survey conducted by community group Save the Dawson found 97 per cent of residents were against the South Baralaba coal project.

Local grazier and group spokesperson Brett Coombe said the survey received 297 responses, which included all the landholders within 20 to 40km of Baralaba.

“There are town people, all the rural people, and there are local landholders employed in the mine and they probably voted yes, but the majority were against the mine,” Mr Coombe said.

He said more than 99 per cent supported the protection of prime agricultural land.

Mr Coombe said the land would never be the same, even after rehabilitation, and he was concerned about water contamination.

“They’re going to put a wash plant in, they’re going to put in a tailings dam, we know there will be leeching because we know what this country is like,” he said.

“All that’s under there, close to the river, is sand and it will leech into the water source.”

Mr Coombe said three towns — Baralaba, Woorabinda and Duaringa — all drew their water supply from the Baralaba weir, and would be impacted by potential contamination.

There were also concerns that a levee bank would not hold during a flood.

“In the last flood, the mine wall [at North Baralaba Mine] busted and we had contamination to the water supply, and I guess that can happen again,” he said.

‘Empty promises’

A half-hour drive from Baralaba is the Indigenous community of Woorabinda, which has a population of about 1,000 people.

Community member Douglas Graham has been following the proposed mine closely.

Mr Graham said the Dawson River was part of a large catchment area that flowed to the coast and the…