Circuit breaker needed in coalmine plans

On Wednesday this week I swapped the NSW Parliament for Yarraman Estate

winery at Wybong in the Upper Hunter. This was my contribution to Pollies for Small Business, an annual initiative organised by the NSW Chamber of Commerce, designed to allow politicians to learn about the challenges in the business world.

 

The drought and the wine glut have put wineries across the Hunter under pressure but Yarraman Estate has another big challenge that is set to add to these difficulties. The proposed Anvil Hill coalmine, situated only a few kilometres from Yarraman, was given the go ahead by the NSW government last month

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Before visiting Yarraman Estate I was aware that this winery was one of many businesses and other organisations that have publicly called for no coal mining at Anvil Hill. Standing on the fertile slopes that have produced award-winning wines for more than half a century it is obvious that an open cut coalmine cannot coexist with a winery.

 

I was left wondering if the Queensland tourists who dropped into Yarraman while I was there would have bothered to drive along the windy roads of the Upper Hunter if they had to contend with coal trucks and if the natural beauty was replaced with a dusty, scarred landscape.

 

The proposed Anvil Hill coalmine, if it goes ahead, will be one the biggest coalmines in NSW, exporting nine million tonnes of coal annually. If the dust from the open cut mine does not taint the wine you would have to think the climate change impacts could well become an insurmountable problem for Yarraman and other Hunter wineries.

 

The mine will create some jobs and clearly the profits will be considerable but that is not good news for the Hunter. Many more jobs would be created in this region by clean green energy systems.

 

Moving over to renewable energy and energy efficiency manufacturing would produce more than ten thousand jobs in the next decade and help secure the future of local wineries and the thoroughbred horse industry in the Hunter Valley.

 

Short-term profits of coal companies must not blind us to the fact that every tonne of coal exported from Newcastle will come back to us as climate change, bringing drought and extreme weather patterns.

 

After seven years of drought, with no rain at all falling in three of those years, Yarraman Estate has already had first hand experience of what could become a more frequent occurrence.

 

Despite these challenges, Yarraman Estate and other local vineyards have helped make the wine industry the third largest Australian agricultural export after meat and wheat.

 

But if the NSW government continues to approve coalmines near vineyards it will be hard for the wine industry to retain this level of contribution to the Australian economy. The Pollies for Small Business program could be the circuit breaker we need.