Whitehaven’s Queensland coal mine challenged by conservationists

Conservationists will launch a court objection to Australia’s largest proposed new coal mine on human rights and climate change grounds, foreshadowing that legal success could block the future fossil fuel projects in Queensland.

Whitehaven Coal's Winchester South coal mine project approvals will be challenged in Queensland’s Land Court by conservationists.

Conservationists will launch a court challenge to Australia’s largest proposed new coalmine on human rights and climate change grounds, foreshadowing that legal success could block future fossil fuel projects in Queensland.

The Australian Conservation Foundation and the Mackay Conservation Group – litigated by the Environmental Defenders Office, which is part-funded by the Queensland government – will on Thursday formally object in the Land Court to the state government’s granting of an environmental authority to Whitehaven’s Winchester South coalmine.

Whitehaven’s $1bn greenfield open-cut metallurgical and thermal coal project, located in the central Queensland mining ­region of the Bowen Basin about 30km southeast of Moranbah, still needs a state mining lease and the green light from federal ­Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

The company plans to extract up to 17 million tonnes a year of mostly steelmaking coal, but also thermal coal which would be burnt overseas.

Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Kelly O’Shanassy said the mine would be a “climate disaster”.

“Approving a coalmine that produces coal to be burnt through to 2055 is reckless and inappropriate at a time when Australia – and the world – needs to cut emissions quickly,” Ms O’Shanassy said.

Whitehaven Coal's proposed Winchester South project will be challenged by conservationists. Picture: Duncan Evans

The conservationists’ case will build on a precedent set in ­November 2022 by Land Court president Fleur Kingham, who ruled Clive Palmer should be blocked from proceeding with a Galilee Basin mine because the burning of the coal overseas would worsen global climate change and limit the human rights of children and Indigenous people.

Months later, the Queensland Environment Department refused Mr Palmer’s Waratah Coal an environmental authority, ­effectively killing the project.

The EDO, a registered charity which also ran the case against the Waratah project, received $1.2m from state governments in the year to June 30, 2023, including $401,627 from the Queensland government. The Albanese government restored federal funding to the EDO after prime minister Tony Abbott scrapped it in 2013.

It lost a landmark Federal Court case against Santos’s $3.5bn Barossa LNG project in January.

EDO southern and central Queensland managing lawyer Revel Pointon said if the Whitehaven case was successful, it was hoped the precedent would stop governments approving new coal projects.

Ms Pointon said it was disappointing the state government had continued to approve new fossil fuel projects after Justice Kingham’s decision in 2022.

“The science is very clear that if we’re aiming for 1.5 degrees – which is the existence of our reef or not – then we know we can’t be approving new fossil projects,” she said.

“Seeing that (the state government) are showing that they do support new fossil fuel projects, it’s definitely disheartening.”

Grounds for objection will include limiting human rights due to the acceleration of climate change and environmental damage from the release of fugitive methane emissions from the mine. The conservation groups and company documents say the project could affect endangered and vulnerable species, including the white-throated snapping turtle, the curlew sandpiper and the greater glider.

Curlew sandpiper.

White-throated snapping turtle. Picture: Bruce Thomson

The ACF and Mackay Conservation Group will on Thursday file a notice of election to be active participants in the Land Court’s objection hearing into White­haven. They will eventually lead expert evidence and cross-examine witnesses.

After hearing submissions from Whitehaven, the government and the conservation groups objecting, the Land Court will recommend ­whether the project’s environmental authority and mining lease should be ­granted or ­rejected.

While the court’s decision is not binding, Queensland governments traditionally abide by the recommendation.