“We’ve been shafted”: Minister’s gold mine ban renders homes unsellable, Blayney locals say

Heartbroken homeowners struck by Tanya Plibersek’s partial ban on a gold mine say they’re stuck in limbo, with their houses rendered unsellable due to uncertainty over the project’s future.

Heartbroken homeowners struck by Tanya Plibersek’s partial ban on a gold mine say they’re stuck in limbo, with their houses rendered unsellable due to uncertainty over the project’s future.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal about 18 properties surrounding the proposed McPhillamys gold mine at Blayney have the option to be bought out by the mine proponent, Regis Resources.

But, after years of waiting while the mine gathered state and federal planning approvals, environment Minister Ms Plibersek’s eleventh hour decision in August to slap a ban on a tailings site for the dam has now thrown future plans for families surrounding it into disarray.

It comes as more questions are raised over the blue-banded bee Dreaming story, which Ms Plibersek last week cited in her reasons for issuing a section 10 ban using Indigenous heritage laws to block the tailings site.

Miles Hedge with the proposed McPhillamys mine site directly behind him. Picture: Graham Schumman

While Ms Plibersek has maintained the mine can go ahead if the tailings site is relocated, Regis says the process could take up to ten years, with the company still considering the project’s future after saying the ban will make it unviable.

Miles Hedge, who has lived on a property across the Mid Western Highway from the mine site since 2006, said the section 10 and new uncertainty had “completely shafted us”.

“I asked a real estate agent about marketing our property, and his exact words were: ‘You couldn’t give it away’,” he told The Telegraph.

“This decision has completely shafted us. There’s a lot of anger around here – nobody knows what’s going on, or what to do.”

“We’re buggered – we’ve been left high and dry by everyone.”

Mr Hedge, 78, said he and his wife had been considering downsizing from their 40 acre property as a result of the potential buyout.

Miles Hedge says he is in limbo, with Minister Tanya Plibersek’s section 10 ban rendering his property unsellable. Picture: Graham Schumman

“I’m not getting any younger … whether you’re in favour of the mine or not, having it in the current stage where no one is sure what’s going to happen isn’t good,” he said.

“It’s totally unrealistic of the minister to say she hasn’t stopped the mine when she’s completely killed it as far as I’m concerned … We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

“(Minister) Plibersek shafted us.”

Up the hill from Mr Hedge, Tony Cashen, 74, whose family have lived on the Kings Plain for four generations, said he too was stuck in limbo.

While he submitted an application against the mine to the NSW Independent Planning Commission – which approved the project – he said they’d considered the buyout if the mine went ahead.

Tony Cashen with his dog Bobbie McGee at his Kings Plains property near Blaney. Picture: Graham Schumman

“We’ve told them from the word go, if the mine goes ahead, we’d have to move,” he said.

“We’ve got one buyer now – that’s Regis … We want a yes or a no, and we want to be compensated if it’s a yes.”

Nearby resident Philip Church is one of those who doesn’t want the mine to go ahead.

The uncertainty now has left him unsure whether to make improvements to his property – such as whether to build a shed.

“I could go ahead and built it now, but then could we back to square one again (if the mine progresses),” he said.

Newly-elected Blayney Shire Mayor Bruce Reynolds said the section 10, issued by the environment Minister in August, left community members “just in limbo”.

“My biggest concern is about … the residents who have been left in limbo – they had a pathway if the mine went ahead where there was buyout provisions for a number of them – now the mine is not going ahead, they just don’t know where they’re heading in their life,” he said.

The torpedoing of the mine is also expected to blow a financial hole in the local council’s budget worth up to $40 million over the next decade, from lost rates revenue and a voluntary planning agreement to upgrade community assets.

Meanwhile, Orange Local Land Council adviser Roy Ah-See said Minister Plibersek “has been sold a pup” over the blue-banded bee Dreaming story she cited as a key reason for blocking the mine’s dam.

Phil Church at his property near the McPhillamys gold mine is unsure of whether the mine will eventually go ahead, and whether he’ll be able to stay. Picture: Graham Schumman,

The story was submitted by the anti-mine group the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation (WTOCWAC), but has been rejected by the local land council, which has cultural authority in the region.

The blue-banded bee Dreaming story did not appear in any of the six ethnographic studies commissioned by mine owner Regis Resources, while a submission from Wiradjuri authority Uncle Neil Ingram earlier this year to Ms Plibersek stated he had never seen any evidence for the story.

Mr Ah-See and the Orange land council is now calling for 121 local land council CEOs to converge on Orange for a call to action in relation to the decision on October 30.

“We want to discuss and unpack and talk about who speaks for country – I think we want to get a recommendation out of that forum (that) we want a parliamentary inquiry into the (section 10) decision,” he said.

Ms Plibersek on Thursday denied she had been duped into supporting the WTOCWAC over the land council.

“I’ve listened very carefully to the evidence from all of the parties concerned and I’ve taken the advice of the (WTOCWAC),” she said, adding former Environment Minister Sussan Ley had taken the group’s advice when banning a go-kart track at Bathurst several years ago.

Ms Plibersek was contacted for comment.

Editor’s note: A caption and a subhead in a story published in the print edition of The Daily Telegraph on Friday, October 18 suggested Blayney local Tony Cashen was in favour of a proposed gold mine going ahead so he could move from his property near it.

While the article outlined Mr Cashen opposed the mine, The Daily Telegraph would like to clarify the caption that suggested that Mr Cashen would have to move if the mine does not go ahead.

Mr Cashen, instead, wouldn’t move if the mine does not go ahead.

This was a production error.

Originally published as “We’ve been shafted”: Minister’s gold mine ban renders homes unsellable, Blayney locals say