Maxwell Underground Coal Mine Project

Re: Application SSD 9526 Maxwell Underground Coal Mine Project
Appendix H Historic Heritage Assessment

I wish to make a submission on part of the above application ie Appendix H Historic Heritage Assessment.

I am objecting to the development because Appendix H Historic Heritage Assessment has failed in a number of areas: -

1. The assessment has relied heavily on previous reports
2. There is no map showing the impact area over Parish Maps. While the Underground covers an area occupied by large properties (which have been identified) the Transport and Service Corridor is through an area of small farms. These have not been identified.
3. Maps on pp.4-5 are about the size of a large postage stamp and are useless.
4. The assessment states that there will be very little surface impact due to the operation being underground. Longwall mining produces considerable impact due to subsidence, which I have observed first hand.
5. Edderton: While there is a lengthy description of the main building, other buildings including two houses have been neglected. One of these houses has hand cut bearers so it could pre date the main house. This part of the assessment needs a plan to provide a better understand of the relationship between the structures mentioned.
6. Bowfields: Plan needed to locate the features mentioned in the assessment.
7. Plashett: As above – plan badly needed. Further, there has been no assessment of the timber stables etc to the east of the homestead. The present poor climatic conditions would be an ideal time to attempt to locate the position of other building that must have existed on a large working station. The Historic Heritage Assessment states that the Project will have no impact on Plashett. There will unless there is an undertaking to maintain the site and complete the work started by Anglo American.

Hoping my submission will be taken into account when evaluating the Maxwell Coal Project.

Kind regards,

Rob Tickle

Advice attached.

NSW Department of Planning , Industry and Environment
GPO Box 39, Sydney NSW 2001
23rd September 2019
Re: Maxwell Underground Coal Mine Project. SSD-9526
To whom it may concern.
My name is Andrew Radcliffe and I live with my wife at Denman NSW.
I am writing to you in hope that with some installed insight from local residences whom support the proposed Malabar Coal, Maxwell Underground Development, may weigh for a beneficial decision that would be positive for the small local community, district, state and country.
You have no doubt been made aware of the details being put forward as submission to progress to an operating underground coal extracting facility. The proactive people in support of the industry whom are well educated and knowledgeable within their field, the anti-lobby group who profess to carry the same credentials, the pro dreamers who just want a free ride and reap financial success, the boisterous anti who grasp the nearest ideology without offering any viable alternative, and the pro realists who stand in the middle to carry the burden of labour to support their families and pay their taxes so the country as a whole can progress.
I fall into the latter category being an electrician relying on local mining activities to forge a living and supporting my wife in establishing her fledging wine business in the Upper Hunter Valley. I know firsthand the fragility of the Hunter Valley labour force’s reliance on the mining industry after being made redundant from a full time position employed by a major mining company in the down turn of the industry in 2015, being unable to gain local employment in any capacity and having to endure fly in fly out work to the Pilbara, Western Australia to source an income. I am within the top percentile of tradespeople within my trade and continue to be so, currently working back within the Hunter Valley with a well-established contracting firm in mine maintenance on a casual basis only, for the past three years. The Hunter Valley needs more jobs.
Let me assure you that all the people I have met and dealt with within the Malabar Coal structure over the past few years, from directors and investors to staff, are of very good character, and moral standing, always approachable, and courteous to all. Their common focus has always been to extract coal from the ground with as little environmental impact as possible at all levels. Investors I have spoken with not only understand the implications of the effects of post mining, they are actually financially proactive in regeneration. A couple developing timber plantations that they unselfishly know they will never see fruition of in their lifetimes, and other investors and directors who are very focused and mindful of the sustainability of agricultural land for the generations to follow. The quality and fibre of men and women at the helm who not only embrace the challenges to environmental sustainability, but actually actively participate in the practices, serve as role models to those who work for them which is evident at the staff level where planning and regeneration work is done with pride.
I believe that Malabar Coal consider themselves custodians of the land on the surface for those that follow, and embrace working within the local community. This is why I support the Malabar Coal Maxwell Proposal for EL 5460.
Yours Sincerely Andrew Radcliffe Jerrys Plains Rd Denman NSW

Supporting letter attached