IT WAS a wake, a celebration and a rally, all in one – when hundreds gathered at Tarwyn Park in the Bylong Valley, NSW, in the final hours before a coal mining company takes over.
Peter Andrews cried sad, and sometimes bitter, tears after 40 years of trying to convince Australians his natural sequence farming could restore harsh landscapes.
“I had a bit of a wrestle with my son,” Mr Andrews told a crowd while standing on the stone steps of the historic Tarwyn Park homestead.
“He said, ‘Why are you doing this, Dad’?”
“I said, ‘Because it’s necessary.’”
Stuart Andrews responded: “Well, everyone thinks you’re mad.”
Peter Andrews told the crowd he replied: “Maybe I am, but I’m going to keep going.”
Bylong Valley residents, Lock the Gate and Hunter environment groups have petitioned the NSW Government to heritage list Tarwyn Park because of the 40 years of natural sequence farming on the property and its value to Australian agriculture and land management.
This is despite Korean state energy company Kepco buying the property from Stuart Andrews in 2014 as part of its plan to establish a new coal mine in the Bylong Valley, to provide coal for Korea’s domestic energy needs.
Kepco takes over control of Tarwyn Park from midnight Sunday after an eight-year lease with Mr Andrews was not renewed at its first two-year renewal point. Kepco said the company and Mr Andrews could not agree on renewal terms.
Stuart Andrews said he sold in 2014 after three years of fighting coal companies because the exploration and arbitration process left individuals to fight multinational companies, at enormous financial and emotional cost, and with an inevitable outcome.
In an interview with the Newcastle Herald he said he did not want his family to pay the emotional toll of retaining Tarwyn Park after years of witnessing, and experiencing the consequences, of his father’s battles with authorities over the property and his farming methods.
Author Sharyn Munro, who has chronicled the impact of mining on individuals and small communities in Australia, said she had wanted to call her book, Coal Wars, but her publisher said it was too confrontational.
She told the crowd when she saw battlers like the Andrews, or Bylong property owner Craig Shaw, or former Gloucester mayor John Rosenbaum, fighting coal companies “my heart aches for them”.
“For these people family and their physical and mental health has to take priority,” Ms Munro said.
Robert Irwin first visited Tarwyn Park 30 years ago as a work experience student from Sydney.
He calls the property his second home.
He saw the frustration of Peter Andrews who produced results on Tarwyn Park but struggled to articulate how he achieved them. He saw the toll it took on his family.
“This is my second home and it’s very upsetting to think of this beautiful place being mined,” Mr Irwin said.
“My biggest frustration is that I don’t think political parties that say they represent farmers are saying anything. When it comes to coal mines it seems both sides of politics see what it’s like out here for people left to deal with it.”
Bylong Valley Protection group spokesman Craig Shaw was in tears and thanked the hundreds of people who gathered. The group has secured meetings next week with NSW Government representatives to discuss heritage listing Tarwyn Park.
“Heritage listing won’t mean Kepco has to improve it, but it does mean they can’t do anything bad to it,” Mr Shaw said.
He criticised a mine exploration process that left individuals to deal with multinational companies, and excluded the community.
A Kepco spokesperson said the company had committed to undertake a comprehensive study into soil hydrology at Tarwyn Park.
“This is documented in the Environmental Impact Statement for the Bylong Coal Project. Kepco has discussed this works with respected institutions including the Tom Farrell Institute of the University of Newcastle. An agreement was unable to be reached with them,” the spokesperson said.
The company had already spent more than $600 million on its proposal for a new mine in Bylong Valley, including $400 million to Anglo American for mining rights, and $200 million on property purchases and reports as part of the development application process.
