The people of Wedderburn v BHP Billiton

Some locals had invited me to what BHP Billiton portrays as a community consultation session. The object of the evening was to allow local residents to learn about the impact of the company’s planned long wall coal mining operations under Wedderburn.

When I arrived I was met by a bevy of BHP Billiton staff and a few employees with the Mine Subsidence Board , busily working the room to explain the glossy display boards about long wall coal mining that crowded the center of the room, dominating the space where we were gathered. 

A BHP Billiton representative told me that the display was set up in a market place style to allow residents to browse and have one-on-one interactions with staff.  The set up of the room – there were no chairs and no room to congregate together – gave us a clear message that BHP Billiton had worked out how they wanted to manage the event.

While the BHP Billiton reps where happy to answer individual questions, when locals asked them to move the exhibition from the center of the room so residents could have a community meeting the response was not so helpful.

While BHP Billiton may have extraordinary power the events that unfolded showed that they cannot always run the show. In a delightful display of people power, a few local residents shifted the display boards to the side of the room when the BHP Billiton staff refused their request for the event to become a public meeting about the long wall mining plans for Wedderburn.

We then had about an hour and half of residents raising their concerns and voicing their distress at BHP Billiton’s approach of mining at any cost.

The main spokesperson for BHP Billiton was Jim Middleton. He sported a company jumper emblazoned with the Illawarra Coal logo and their motto “Pride, passion, performance”. Part of the company’s public relations work over the years as their long wall coal mining operations have undermined the countryside has been to provide sponsorship to local sporting clubs and other community ventures.

The latest Illawarra Coal Employee Newsletter Jun08  boasts that the company has handed over $400,000 in grants since the project was kicked off in 2004. At about $100,000 per year this money would hardly rate as petty cash for a company the size of BHP Billiton. But I guess they view it as cheap advertising to have numerous locals decked out sporting gear in with the company logo and that PR derived motto “Pride, passion and performance”.

BHP Billiton has been mining in the southern coalfields since 1936 when their parent company started operating at Wongawilli. All up they have had 40 years experience of long wall coal mining in NSW.

But they are quite cagey about revealing details of their decades of local mining experience. In 2006 Illawarra Coal declined to be interviewed by the magazine Australian Mining. The journalist who unsuccessfully pursued the interview was willing to speak to any one of ten of BHP Billiton’s Illawarra operations but the response was that all the possible spokespersons were “time-challenged”.

The theme for BHP Billiton’s operations is clear – avoid scrutiny at all costs. While the journalist with Australian Mining was given the flick the Wedderburn community did not comply so easily.

Meanwhile, back at the Wedderburn meeting that Jim Middleton and his crew went to such lengths to avoid, many of the locals understandably questioned the company reps about subsidence. The company and the Mines Subsidence Board spokespeople were confident that a 1.5 metre drop in the landscape would have minimal impact. Residents were not reassured.  It was hard to swallow such assurances when we were also informed that at nearby Appin similar mining operations there have resulted in damage to 133 houses and ten had to be demolished.

Many locals are worried about their water security, as the subsidence could crack water tanks and pipes. Wedderburn residents rely on tanked water. Concern was expressed about the difficulty in fighting bushfires if the watercourses were cracked as has happened at Cataract and Nepean Rivers.

One of the big challenges locals identified was being kept informed - how would they know what BHP Billiton planned to do and when it would happen. This is one of the most common complaints my office receives from coal communities who stand up to coal mining companies intent on mining irrespective of the environmental or social costs.

I found this a disturbing event to participate in. The frustration of the locals heightened as the evening wore on. For all the politeness and apparent helpfulness of the BHP Billiton staff they cannot give satisfactory answers. Their job is to contain local opposition using divide and conquer tactics. They cannot give satisfactory answers to the questions of the people of Wedderburn when they ask for certainty that the local rivers will not crack, that the local environment will not be damaged and their homes will not be undermined.

The question was put “What will it take for BHP Billiton to walk away?” When Jim Middleton said that was “impossible” to answer, he was asked to “take the question back to management and tell them all the people Wedderburn are against your plans”.

This whole process is a charade. A crude con job designed to divert locals who BHP Billiton know will do everything in their power to stop mining under Wedderburn proceeding.

So locals are given the illusion that submissions and community consultations will make a difference. 

Locals have tried to engage with the process that BHP Billiton rolls out in accordance with the loose planning laws under which this mine will be approved. The submissions are informative of community opinion and the delights of Wedderburn’s natural beauty but throughout all this you are constantly left with a feeling of the relentless push to mine at all costs.

Battling giant mining multinationals is one of the toughest campaigns. Saving Wedderburn is not going to be easy. As we left the cold hall many of the locals were fired up to take on BHP Billiton. Others talked about moving on.

The Greens No New Coal position grew from our concerns about the coal indstry’s greenhouse gas emissions, its impact on climate change and the need to developer renewable energy instead.  But the damage that long wall coal mining operations inflict on local communities and the environment goes so much deeper.