White Rock Quarry operating within Horsnell Gully Conservation Park, residents group shocked
A beautiful setting for a picnic and a swim on public Conservation Park land is being used by a quarry and fenced off with Keep Out signs.
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A controversial quarry operation is using land and water inside a conservation park, a local community group fighting the miner’s expansion plans has discovered.
Residents Against White Rock Quarry say they have discovered 7.5ha of the land used by mining company Hanson Australia is actually part of Horsnell Gully Conservation Park.
The group says what should be a lovely picnic spot with a swimming hole is instead fenced off and has “Keep Out” warning signs.
It says the current land title, also viewed by the Sunday Mail, indicates an annual licence for Hanson to operate on that piece of land expired in February 2010.
But the state government said there was a long standing lease for the land between the Environment Department and the miner.
When the Sunday Mail posed questions about the land title, the government clarified that the arrangement continued on a month-to-month basis.
The leader of the community group, Demetrios Bastiras, of Skye, decided to investigate after poring over plans for the mine’s expansion, which include detailed aerial maps.
“The apparent destruction of Horsnell Gully Conservation Park by Heidelberg Cement Group’s Hanson White Rock Quarry is completely unacceptable, whether licensed or not,” he said.
“If there is any illegal activity whatsoever, we demand an immediate revocation of their right to mine anywhere within the private mine boundary, let alone in the Conservation Park.
“We demand that the destruction of the area concerned is reversed, and that the area be rehabilitated.”
The company has been taking water from a dam in the Third Creek catchment and cleared land to stockpile sand, rubble and rusty old trucks.
Aerial imagery shows Horsnell Billabong has been filled in over time.
“The filling in of Horsnell Billabong with waste and landfill is outrageous, as is the free use of the water collected in Horsnell Conservation Park dam,” Mr Bastiras said.
“The presence of a graveyard of rusty broken-down trucks and machinery in the creek area shows that (the company) has a complete disregard of our environment.”
A spokeswoman for the Energy and Mining Department said use of the land as part of the quarry operation “predates” the Horsnell Gully Conservation Park.
“The existing (Environment Department) lease permits use of the land for ancillary quarry activities such as water supply and stockpiles,” she said.
“There is no active mining of quarry material within the lease area.
“The lease states that the lessee shall, at its expense, rehabilitate the land to the satisfaction of the (government) at the conclusion of operations within the lease boundaries.”
The government also confirmed that wildlife relied on the water sources in the area, but said public recreational use would not be “promoted” while the lease agreement was operating.
Hanson Australia said in a statement: “Hanson has a current and longstanding agreement to use a small portion of Horsnell Gully Conservation Park for water retention and stockpiling.”
In June, the government asked the company for more information about its expansion plans after residents raised concerns about air quality, noise, traffic, plants, animals, cultural heritage, visual amenity and rehabilitation.
Last month, residents raised further concerns about dirty run-off from the quarry into Third Creek, which the Environment Protection Authority confirmed was a breach of the company’s operating licence.
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