That phone call has now become evidence in “the most complex and the most important investigation ever undertaken by ICAC [Independent Commission Against Corruption]”.

On Friday Ms Nancarrow took to the witness stand in ICAC’s public inquiry that concerns how Bylong properties Cherrydale Park, Coggan Creek and Donola were acquired in 2007 and 2008, and the financial consequences of those acquisitions to parties who were affected - most importantly the Obeid family.

Ms Nancarrow confirmed at the inquiry that she took a phone call from business man Justin Lewis in May 2009. 

“The gist of the conversation, he [Lewis] introduced himself after I’d introduced myself which I always do when I answer the phone,” Ms Nancarrow said.

“He asked me, he told me that he’d bought a property in Bylong, I congratulated him and asked him which property that was. 

“He told me that he’d bought Coggan Creek and I said “Oh, Ted O’Brien’s place, yeah. Okay.” And then he asked me whether I was familiar with Google Earth. 

“I said I was familiar with the concept and then he asked me for directions from the store to Coggan Creek.”

Mr Lewis denies these facts. He told Geoffrey Watson SC, counsel assisting the commission, that in May 2009 he did know how to get to Coggan Creek.

Mr Lewis also said Ms Nancarrow was “confused”.

“I think she [Nancarrow] might have been - I wouldn’t say that because she comes across as quite an honest person, however I would say that she may have got confused,” Mr Lewis said. 

When I heard her testimony it didn’t match up to the story that was in the paper.”

Mr Lewis was referring to an article by The Sydney Morning Herald reporter Kate McClymont, published on May 26, 2012, and titled “And on that farm he had some mates”.

In that article Ms McClymont reports Ms Nancarrow received a phone call from Mr Lewis in 2008, not 2009.

Another Herald reporter, Anne Davies, wrote an original story exposing the Obeid’s property purchases.

 This was titled “Coal down below, how rich is his valley” and published on May 20, 2010.

Ms Davies took to the ICAC witness stand on Friday.

Ms Davies said she did not recall Ms Nancarrow talking about knowledge of coal in the Bylong Valley during interviews for the 2010 story.

The journalist collected information about coal from “a large report on remnant coal deposits through the Hunter and the Upper Hunter” that was accessible from the Department of Primary Industries.

Ms Nancarrow admitted coal became an agenda for “gossip” at the Bylong General Store 12 months after the phone call from Mr Lewis.

Before then “Coal wasn’t on the agenda in Bylong at that time, in no-one’s

Vocabulary,” Ms Nancarrow said.

However when was cross-examined by Stuart Littlemore QC – the lawyer representing Eddie Obeid Snr – it was revealed Ms Nancarrow was privy to information about coal in the Bylong Valley from as early as 2002.

Mr Littlemore asked if Ms Nancarrow was aware that Anglo American had an Exploration Licence in the Bylong Valley.

“I got to know the geologists who were drilling in the Valley in 2002. I

was told by the then senior geologist after the drilling had occurred on the Exploration Licence in Bylong that there was coal in there Exploration

Licence, it was too difficult to get to, it didn’t suit their style of mining and in my lifetime I would not see coalmining in the Bylong Valley,” Ms Nancarrow said.

She later told the inquiry this news was a relief and it didn’t become a “gossip” agenda until after 2009.

“I don’t think I gossiped about what the geologist told me, no,” Ms Nancarrow said.

“I probably told someone but I wouldn’t call it gossip, it wasn’t gossip, it was a conversation that I had with an individual from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, so I don’t call that gossip.”

In talking about the purchase of Coggan Creek, Mr Lewis said he wanted to own a farm.

Counsel assisting the commission quizzed Mr Lewis’ intentions with Coggan Creek.

Mr Lewis said he has never bought a cow – although he has discussed it – never bought any stock feed, never bought a piece of farming equipment, never bought a hammer or nail for Coggan Creek.   

Of farming in general, Mr Lewis said: “To my way of thinking, how hard could it be?”

He prompted laughter when he was asked about the kind of cattle he wanted to run on his property. The kind that “walk around and eat grass”, he said.

He also revealed discussions took place that the property could be sold for four times its original price to a mining company.

Mr Lewis said before the purchase he knew coal throughout the region but then later said he didn’t know of coal in the Hunter until recently.

The inquiry is also investigating circumstances surrounding a decision made in 2008 by the Minister for Primary Industries and Minister for Mineral Resources, Ian Macdonald MLC, to open a mining area in the Bylong Valley for coal exploration, including whether this was influenced by Edward Obeid MLC or members of his family.