Wetlands should never burn, but Carne West Swamp in the Newnes Plateau did because it was undermined by coal mining. They cracked the bedrock and the water drained out, and now it has been destroyed forever.

The Nature Conservation Council of NSW recently teamed up with local Lithgow environmentalists to investigate and document the damage done to areas that have been undermined by coal. What they discovered was a disaster zone.

Endangered wetlands have been turned into lifeless, dusty deserts. These areas which were once the life-blood of the forest and supported an incredible diversity of rare wildlife are now barren.

Longwall mining deliberately collapses the ground after the machine extracts the coal. This causes cracks in the bedrock, which drains water from the wetlands. They dry out and become extremely vulnerable to fires, and many of the wetlands of the Newnes Plateau scorched during the 2019/20 bushfires.

Already some wetlands have been lost forever. We seek to protect the remaining wetlands from the same disaster. The re-opening and expansion of Angus Place mine under the remaining wetlands should be rejected. This area of the Newnes Plateau should be protected from mining.