Farmers fight mine but horse has bolted

AUSTRALIA'S biggest open-cut coalmine will engulf rich farmland, west of Brisbane, after a court rejected a last-ditch bid.

Pat Devlin

AUSTRALIA'S biggest open-cut coalmine will engulf rich farmland, west of Brisbane, after a court rejected a last-ditch bid by local farmers and greens to lock the gate because it would exacerbate climate change .

The rolling cattle and cropping country around Wandoan has become a battleground of the competing interests to produce wealth from mining, food from the land and to abate Australia's greenhouse contribution.

Caught in the middle are life-long farmers such as Pat Devlin, 61, who last night vowed to stay put after the Queensland Land Court ruled to allow multinational Xstrata to press on with the huge coalmine that will border his property. "We're going to sit it out right here," he said. "If they do start mining, we will be pushing as hard as we can to make sure they meet the environmental conditions . . . they are not going to shut us up."

His neighbour, John Erbacher, a son of one of the soldier-settlers who opened up the district after World War II, was not so sure.

"We're shellshocked," he admitted. "At the moment, I have no idea what we are going to do."

The Wandoan mining lease application originally covered 32,000ha and took in 42 properties owned by farming families, 39 of which reached negotiated settlements with Xstrata before those remaining went to court. The Wandoan mine, when in full operation, would yield about 7 per cent of Australia's 2010-11 coal production of 405 million tonnes.

The battle for Wandoan has been waged on multiple fronts, with Xstrata at one point threatening to pull the pin on the $7 billion coal development had the federal government's mining tax gone ahead, as initially proposed by then prime minister Kevin Rudd.

The case in the Land Court, brought by eight landholders including Mr Devlin and Mr Erbacher and backed by the Friends of the Earth conservation group, turned on the proposition that the mine should be stopped because of its climate change implications.

Lawyers for Friends of the Earth submitted that the mine's eventual output of 30 million tonnes of coal a year would be produced at a cost of 49 million tonnes a year in greenhouse gases.

The emissions created by end users burning the coal would account for 0.15 per cent of annual global pollution, with predictions that 1.3 million tonnes would be emitted over the 30-year life span of the mine.

However, experts called by Xstrata argued it would be pointless to ban the mine, and that economic benefit outweighed the environmental concerns.

Land Court president Carmel MacDonald yesterday sided with the company.

"The issue of climate change is clearly a matter of general public interest and a matter which may militate against the grant of the proposed leases," she said.

"However, it is only one of a number of matters that the court must weigh up in considering whether the public right and interest will be prejudiced.

"I conclude that the climate change objection did not justify a refusal of the proposed mining leases."

Mr Devlin said the ruling was disappointing, but not unexpected.

"We always knew that it was going to be hard to win in the Land Court, and even then the minister could step in and over-rule that," he said from his cattle property, about 20km west of Wandoan township, five hours' drive from Brisbane. "But to me, it wasn't just about us.

"I was brought up the son of a soldier settler and I believe this land should be preserved for food production in the interests of the whole country. We can't just keep on going destroying our best land. What are we going to feed people?

"And if this mine goes ahead, it will destroy the land around here, no doubt about it." The network of up to 16 coal pits planned by Xstrata, and granted conditional environmental approval by the federal government last March, will encroach to within 500m of the northern boundary of Mr Devlin's 650ha property, which he took over from his father, Frank, an airman in World War II.

Mr Erbacher, 56, said his position was even more precarious: much of his 1000ha spread will be subsumed to store explosives for the mine.

"There's not much of a community left around here as things stand," Mr Erbacher said. "We're still trying to digest what happened today."

Recommending that the mining leases be granted to Xstrata, Ms MacDonald set a number of conditions, including the exclusion of some landowners' properties from the lease areas.

Additional reporting: AAP