The Department of Planning and Environment has found that the proposed expansion is “approvable” but has referred the application to the Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) for review. 

The department acknowledged that negative impacts of the mine would primarily affect the Wollar community including residents in the village and its surrounds, their families and others who feel connected to the village. 

However, it found that while the Wilpinjong Extension Project would bring the mine closer to the village and could exacerbate the negative social impacts, the most significant effects have already occurred as a result of the approval of the original mine in 2006, and there is limited scope to reverse these impacts. 

Even if the project was not allowed to proceed, the decline in population was likely to continue, the department concluded. 

The Department of Planning received 741 submissions on the Wilpinjong Extension Project, of which 10 were from residents of Wollar village and 17 were from residents living in the local area. 

Of the 27 submissions from local residents, nine supported the project and 18 objected. 

Ms Smiles said the recommendation that the extension to within 1.5km of Wollar Village should be approved and all remaining villagers be given the right to sell out to mine owners, Peabody Energy, was the final straw for the community. 

‘The people left on outlying properties have not been afforded the same rights and will be left stranded with no social connections left in the village,” she said. “We live in a very remote area and this decision will cause further isolation.” 

Ms Smiles said referring the project to the PAC for a public hearing would extinguish residents’ legal right to appeal against approval of the project. 

‘My family have had a long history in the Wollar area and I am gutted that all our connections and history mean nothing,” she said.  “Because of this State Government we can’t even go to court to fight for what we hold dear.”