Rosewood coal mine site’s rehabilitation almost a decade after closure

It was a 65-year-old coal mine which employed hundreds of locals over its time in operation but now — almost a decade after it turned lights out — rehabilitation works continue. Here is where things are at.

An Australian mining giant remains in talks with the Department of Environment as rehabilitation works on the New Oakleigh Coal Mine at Rosewood progress, almost a decade since its closure.

The Oakleigh Colliery company began in 1948 when the Rule family acquired the mine, which started as a pick and shovel operation.

New Hope bought the Oakleigh mine in 1999 and in January, 2013 the company decided to close it down, at the time saying the site had “reached the end of its productive life”.

The site has been the subject of a Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plan (PRCP) since then.

Most recently in the process, the Department of Environment and Science (DES) notified New Hope Coal that more information was needed around water quality, monitoring of vegetation soil, and erosion categorisation as part of an ongoing process to care for the land.

Rosewood's New Oakleigh coal mine when it was nearing the end of its operation. Picture: Sarah Fleming

The DES documents revealed water quality exceeded the “trigger limits” for compounds including sulfate and total dissolved solids.

New Hope Coal was asked to provide a revised rehabilitation plan with additional information which explained and justified the rationale for the selection of water quality limits in the milestone criteria.

Previously, in 2015, the department issued New Hope Coal an environmental protection order after it released contaminated water from the Rosewood mine.

Water with more than 50mg of suspended solids contaminants per litre is not meant for release, however at the time it was found New Oakleigh’s water was recording between 518mg and 12,200mg per litre.

“The release of sediment-laden waters has the potential to adversely impact on the environmental values of Western Creek and downstream systems,” the environmental protection order said in 2015.

“It is of concern to the department that in the absence of further erosion and sediment control measures any biosolids applied to the site … are likely to be transported beyond the boundary of the site until vegetation is established.”

While New Hope Group, which is partly owned by Australian investment company Washington H Soul Pattinson, stopped mining at New Oakleigh Coal in 2013, the company’s other operations at Bengalla and Bridgeport are still in open.

New Hope recently invested more than $2 million to rehabilitate land associated with the New Acland mine, north west of Toowoomba, following allegations of unauthorised mining activities.