New Acland Coal expansion returns to the Land Court

Glenn Beutel fronted the Land Court to explain how the New Acland Coal mine has made life in his family home unbearable – but despite the noise and dust he is refusing to sell up.

Glen Beutel, the only resident left in the Acland township. Mining company New Hope has bought up 50 homes to expand a coal mine and Glen's former neighbours have all moved out. He lives by himself in a small home near the middle of town.

If you block your ears and watch the videos Glenn Beutel filmed from his back step you get the sense the he lives in an idyllic country village.

The morning sun gently bathes the backyard of his Acland home while trees and flowers sway in the breeze.

But the tranquil scene is ruined by audio that captures the dull roar of mining equipment digging the New Acland coal pit a few hundred metres from where Mr Beutel has lived his whole life.

Today he took the witness stand on the first day of a Land Court hearing into the proposed Stage 3 expansion of the New Hope Group’s mine.

The court will assess the proposed expansion’s impact on noise and dust pollution along with the mine’s past performance.

If the court approves the expansion then it will assess the mine’s effect on the water table and aquifers via a second water licence application.

Mr Beutel, who has been fighting to have the expansion culled for more than a decade, handed up copies of his diaries and a collection of videos detailing the noise pollution that he claimed has invaded his home.

They record banging, squeaking and surging noises that get worse depending on which way the wind blows.

At its worst the noise was compared to that of an airport tarmac.

“It is the noise of 10,000 screaming, dying people,” a passage read.

Counsel for the New Hope Group Damian Clothier challenged Mr Beutel’s notes, arguing that they were selective.

Mr Clothier further challenged their accuracy by questioning why Mr Beutel refused to deal directly with the NAC and preferred to put his complaints to the Department of Environment and Heritage.

This included refusing an offer by the NAC to install sound monitoring devices on his property in 2012.

Mr Beutel told the court he did not want to give NAC employees the right to come and go from his property as they pleased.

“I remember having varying instances of intimidation and I did not want to be identified,” he said.

“I had always functioned on the basis that the Department of Environment should be policing noise because having the company do the work would mean it would not be independent and reliable.”

When further questioned about the noise Mr Beutel said it was markedly different from the familiar noises of people coming and going from work that filled Acland before the Stage 2 expansion.

The hearings have been adjourned until 10am on Monday when it returns to Brisbane to take testimony from a range of environmental, geological and mining experts.