Insight preview: Locals divided over Acland mine expansion in the Darling Downs

THERE are some towns where the mining industry has been warmly welcomed. But tonight’s episode of Insight on SBS will reveal the towns where the opposition is fierce.

CMNEWS_Grazier Sid Plant and his daughter Tanya pictured here on their property near the New Hope mine in Acland Thursday July 9th, 2015. Pictures: Jack Tran / The Courier Mail

THERE are those towns where the mining industry is warmly welcomed, along with the jobs, investment and prosperity it promises to bring.

Then there are other towns, like Acland and Oakey in regional Queensland, where locals are firmly divided.

Many are opposing a $900 million planned expansion the Acland coal mine, west of Brisbane, fearing expanded mining operations will usher in health issues, destroy rich farming land and uproot existing industries.

Father and son dairy farmers Noel and Grant Wieck are among those locals. Their prize-winning dairy farm borders New Hope Group’s mine, where a third-stage expansion proposal has been in the works for eight years.

On tonight’s episode of Insight on SBS, Noel Wieck, 70, will join a panel of stakeholders to discuss the struggle between miners and farmers in the Darling Downs over the Acland mine.

Noel’s primary concern in that the expanded mining operation would disrupt the underground water that his farm — which his grandfather started in 1921 — completely relied on.

Grant, Alec and Noel Wieck enjoy fresh milk from the family's award-winning dairy farm in 2012.

In that case, the farm would have to rely on an external source of water to feed its 500-head of dairy cattle, and the Wiecks are unsure that will be enough to secure future prosperity.

“The impact will be severe,” Noel told news.com.au

“Whether it totally takes out water supply or makes it unreliable but only time will tell.”

Grant, 31, added: “In our situation, regardless of what rehabilitation takes place if that underground water is upset or interfered with or taken away, nothing could ever be done to give that natural process back to the landscape in the future.

“Once it’s stuffed it will be stuffed forever. We can’t see that ever being fixed up in our situation. We need to have confidence that some alternative water will be found and will be provided to us by the mining company in that event.”

Another concern is the impact of mining on quality soil in the proposed expansion area.

“The soft black cracking clay lines is top shelf soil as far as we’re concerned,” Grant said.

“To want to go and dig it up for a few years’ economic gain, when as far as digging for coal goes could happen somewhere else, and leave that quality soil there forever and for future generations is a matter of conscience.”

Grant Wieck with daughter Alicia, 8. Picture: Jack Tran

Noel doesn’t disagree that the Acland mine brings jobs and investment to the local community.

He just worries they’re short-term benefits, and potentially at a big cost — especially given the shaky value of coal.

“The short term is very, very beneficial, I acknowledge that quite readily,” he said.

“But in 15 years’ time, what then? I’m going to be 70 and I’ve lived in this vicinity all my life, and my family’s been here for 94 years, I take a much longer perspective on things.

“For some people around here, the fact they have a job is all that’s important to them.

“The mine puts a lot of ads in the paper saying ‘this is our future’ with a picture of a miner and his son beside him with a hard hat on his head, and I think, well that’s fine for his son’s generation but what are his grandkids going to do?”

New Hope Group’s proposed Acland stage three coal project has been mired in controversy since the plans were first mooted in 2007.

The opposition has been fierce. Some locals have expressed concerns over the noise as well as the potential health impacts from the mining operation, but the main concern has been about the future of agriculture in the rich farming area.

Farmer Tanya Plant (pictured with her father Sid) will also appear on Insight tonight in opposition of the Acland mine. Picture: Jack Tran

In the midst of the debate, the NLP government of former Queensland premier Campbell Newman has been accused of backflipping on its opposition to the project.

Landholders who have been fighting the expansion plans have found an ally in Darling Downs-raised shock jock Alan Jones, who used his opposition to the Acland mine against Mr Newman during Queensland’s state election earlier this year.

But trickier questions have also been raised over the alleged payment of $1 million in political donations by the mine’s parent company to the Liberal Party. National action group Lock the Gate Alliance said today it had lodged a complaint with the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission in relation to the funds, urging for an inquiry into the stage three project.

The previous Queensland government’s change of heart on the stage three project was especially frustrating to the Weicks, who had invested millions in a dairy “robot” to enhance productivity on the back of assurance the mine expansion would not be approved.

Radio broadcaster Alan Jones with Queensland Federal MP Bob Katter during a protest march on the New Hope Group’s Acland coal mine in 2012. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

“We’d practically spent the last decade with a business is stagnation over the possibility of what may happen with the mine next door, because we need to have some certainty that if we’re going to pour capital in our business we we’re going to be around to see the benefit of that,” Grant said.

“That’s the frustration of it really, to be standing still so long wanting to make a decision one way or another and finally throw the shackles off with a political guarantee and find yourself on shaky ground again.”

New Hope has not yet been granted a mining lease or environmental authority for the Acland expansion. The case will now go through the Land Court.

All the Wiecks can do is wait for the outcome and hope for the best.

“The fascinating point is that if it’s taken so many attempts to launch a future stage of the mine, then perhaps no matter how they wish to dress it up the merits aren’t there to allow a future stage of the mine to proceed,” Grant said.

“This is about how society wants to value the landscape and how it treats the area.”

Insight: When Mining Comes to Town airs 8.30pm tonight on SBS.