Drawing a Line in the Sand - The Fight to Save Anvil Hill from the open-cut coal mine.

20km west of Muswellbrook, at Wybong near the town of Denman, there is something rare: a large, intact and quality stand of remnant Hunter Valley floor bushland. The largest bit left on the Central Hunter Valley floor in fact. It is unsurprising, therefore, that the site is rich in biodiversity, much of it rare and threatened. It is home to at least 178 animal species, including 4 threatened bat species, the squirrel glider, the koala, 14 threatened bird species and many more protected under international covenant. It is also home to at least 420 species of native flora, many of which are threatened and 3 of which are endemic to the area, including one newly discovered species of orchid found only at this site. The feature landform there is the unique Anvil Hill.

The site is threatened by something not so rare in the Hunter Valley - a coal corporation is making plans to bulldoze it, dig it up, sell the coal and leave it for dead.

As well as irreplaceable Valley-floor bushland, the proposed mine at Anvil Hill would destroy an area rich in Aboriginal heritage, including campsites and many artefacts. The mine would also literally remove a large part of the catchment of the Wybong creek, an already highly stressed major tributary to the Hunter River. The mine would require the removal of two creeks, the relocation of one, and would extend to within 50 metres from the bank of another. As with any coal mine, the company, Centennial Coal, would need to discharge contaminated water into the local and regional environment during the operation of the mine, and would move on at the end of the life of the mine leaving a super-saline void infecting the landscape.

Centennial Coal is one of the largest home-grown coal corporations in Australia. They�ve been through some testing times of late. Production troubles at their Newstan mine at Lake Macquarie, and their fixed price domestic power coal contracts (which mean they�re largely missing out on the export coal price boom), have sent their share-price in the wrong direction. The management of Centennial have pinned their hopes on the company�s first shot at Upper Hunter open-cut coal mining � the proposed Anvil Hill mine near Wybong.

With a planned area of 2000 hectares, and planned production of up to 10.5 million tonnes of coal per year, the Anvil Hill mine would be one of the largest in the Hunter, and certainly the largest mine that Centennial have ever operated. The company�s current biggest mine is Newstan, a 4 million tonne per annum capacity longwall mine.

Unfortunately for Centennial Coal, they are not the only ones with their eyes on Anvil Hill. The mine proposal has been chosen by a new alliance of local, regional, state, national and international groups and individuals as the iconic new anti-coal campaign in the Hunter. The Anvil Hill Alliance is drawing a line in the sand, and attempting to do something which has never before been done in the Hunter � defeat a proposed coal mine. The ranks of the Anvil Hill Alliance include several workers in current coal mines who have seen close-up and first-hand the devastation of the coal industry, and are standing up to say �no more�.

In some ways, there is nothing special about the Anvil Hill mine proposal. The main problem with it as far as many are concerned is common to any coal mine � climate change.

Climate change, and what to do about it, is finally attracting broad public concern in Australia, in the face of ongoing record temperatures and increasingly desperate warnings from scientists that life itself is under immediate threat due to human greenhouse gas emissions. Unless greenhouse pollution is cut swiftly and radically, scientists warn, the world will slip into runaway climate chaos, leading to unprecedented waves of species extinction, and massive disruption and destruction of human societies. The Hunter, of course, is one of the world�s carbon capitals, home to a rapacious coal mining industry and the most voluminous coal exporting facility in the world. The industry is fast expanding too, anticipating an increase in Hunter coal exports of up to 70% in the next few years, from 80 million tonnes per year currently to 138 million tonnes in 2009.

Choosing just one mine to fight might seem like a token gesture, but there are some good reasons why Anvil Hill is important. Firstly, Centennial Coal have expressly linked the construction of this new mine with the construction of the new coal loader planned for Newcastle Harbour. Centennial are part of the BHP-led consortium building the new coal loader so they can access the export market with Anvil Hill coal. The Anvil Hill mine is one of the biggest new mines on the cards, and a key part of the Hunter Valley coal export expansion, which needs to be stopped if the world is to avoid climate chaos. Also, there is strong local opposition to it among the Wybong community, and the area which would be destroyed by the mine has catchment, Aboriginal heritage, and biodiversity values which would warrant a vocal protection campaign even in a world not on the brink of climate disaster.

The NSW Government claims to be acting against climate change, but while they continue to oversee the expanding Hunter coal behemoth, this claim will be as empty as the coal corporations� claims to be concerned about sustainability and the environment. If the world is to avoid the looming catastrophe of runaway climate change, governments are going to have to find the courage to say �no� to the coal industry. The people are going to have to make them. It will start with one mine� Anvil Hill.

A couple of things to do:

Get involved with the Anvil Hill Alliance - www.anvilhill.org.au

Send a letter to NSW politicians using this guide.