Georges River Macarthur Sitemap

Georges River Macarthur website general links

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Georges River Catchment - Macarthur

• broken promises - longwall mining - deceit, denial and broken promises made by mining companies in their pursuit of coal
• longwall mining process - damage, cause and effects - Sometimes longwall mining is called destructive or environmentally unsafe because it causes the land above the mined-out panel to sink. This can damage underground water tables, structures at the surface, and can cause erosion of the soil.
• backstow - mining subsidence - backstow reduces surface damage, our politicians don't legislate for it, if coal companies would "backstow"--i.e., fill the cavities they create in the earth--most of the subsidence could be avoided. They could use their own longwall waste, dredge spoil, "overburden" from their strip mines which they currently dump onto headwater streams,
• Cataract river - Cataract river during the seventies
• Georges river dieing - Based on the photographs taken from March to July 09 this isn't happening. BHP Billitons Illawarra Coal have stated that the swamps are healthy so where is the water going. Possibly it's disappearing into cracks in the river bed. Surely that wouldn't account for the low water levels after weeks of rain.
• Iluka Creek - Iluka Swamp - Iluka Creek, Iluka Swamp, Georges River catchment. We almost gave up on finding water but eventually located it by the dead grass gave way causing Bens boot to slip through.
• Macarthurs rivers - Bargo, Georges, Cataract rivers - Broughton Pass Dam, Marhnes Hole, Appin. Generally, it is accepted that fault reactivation sometimes may extend over the period of residual subsidence. In parts of the abandoned or partially active coalfields in the UK, relatively smaller ground movements have been observed in the vicinity of fault outcrops many years after mining has ceased.
• Mine subsidence - mine subsidence in the Upper Nepean river catchment. Basically the long wall mining underneath has caused the overlying rock to crack which has resulted in increased surface water losses from the rivulet.
  What Peabody Mining had done was insert a polyurethane resin to fix the cracks. The company is not sure whether it worked and whether it will work across the whole rivulet but took the award anyway.
• Georges River photographs - photographs of 7 km downstream of Freres Crossing. On the way one passes many Gymea Lilies and Grass Trees.
  The sandstone cliffs with their caves are worth noting as is the unusual rock formations on the river bed which resemble the holes on Swiss cheese. The walk which passes by some of the very early historic attempts at settlement in the Macarthur / Campbelltown region is off track and not for the inexperienced walker.
  The water flow in the river has been greatly reduced in recent years as a result of longwall mining georges river - the dieing river which makes the river easier to cross.
• Stokes Creek - Stokes Creek Wedderburn, Georges River catchment. The mining industry, Federal and NSW Labour governments refuse to acknowledge and accept the massive damage caused by longwall mining to the Macarthur Region of NSW despite the overwhelming information condemning it.
• Wedderburn - Wedderburns rivers, creeks and properties. The license (Exploration License ELA3474) affects the Dharawal State Recreation Area, Georges River, Stokes Creek, Pheasants Creek and O'Hares Creek with the western boundary running parralel with and in some cases less than 100 metres from Georges River. The south eastern perimeter follows Stokes Creek and the eastern perimeter is less than 250 metres from O'Hares Creek. The northern boundary is approximately 200 metres south of Hodgsons Close.
• Wedderburn gorge - Wedderburn gorge, Georges River catchment, environmental damage. Certainly the Cataract and the Nepean Rivers are already showing the effects of longwall mining so what does the future hold for Macarthurs beautiful rivers and the creatures that they sustain?
  We already have reports of Cox's River being poisoned by heavy metals.
  The powers that be tell us that testing meets governmental guidelines, how reassuring. Just like standards, guidelines are developed using the latest information available at the time. Perhaps the guidelines need to be addressed and updated. Don't forget that Cataract and Nepean rivers are part of the Sydney catchment and Sydneys water supply.
• Woolwash - The Woolwash junction with O'Hares creek Wedderburn - Minto. The state government prosecutes businesses and individuals for damaging or polluting the environment on a miniscule scale compared to what we are seeing here from the mining industry.
  Any company damaging rivers resulting in such damage should be prosecuted by the various NSW government environmental protection agencies which the same government choosed to ignore. The state government chooses to ignore its own agencies in favour of the mines.
• O'Hares - Wedderburn - Georges River, O'Hares Creek, Campbelltown, Wedderburn.
• Dharawal State Recreation Area - Georges River, O'Hares Creek, Darkes Forest.
• punchbowl creek kentlyn - Punchbowl Creek at the Basin Georges River NSW
• Appin_cataract.html - Upstream of Kings Falls Appin in the Georges River upper catchment
• Georges River runs dry - is it too late? - Macarthur Bushwalkers discover O'Hares Creek and Georges River Upper Catchment with no water flow at the Woolwash
• Frank Sartor & DECCW - Letters to Frank Sartor and Dept of Environment, Climate Change and Water re Whale Cave and Woronora Catchments (328 kb)

General Longwall Mining Links

• Rivers SOS - An alliance of some forty environmental and community groups concerned with the wrecking of rivers in New South Wales by mining operations.
• Cost clean coal - Clean coal, is it too costly to consider. Mining representatives from the Hunter Valley spoke at the start of the 2009 Sydney Walk on Warming and stated that they were in complete support of the Federal government supporting clean power generation industries because clean coal "didn't exist".
  They stated there twice as many jobs would be created if the government closed down the mining industry and developed solar, wind and other means of power generation which are tried, tested and available.
  With further development they could be Australias next export to the world.
• Longwall Mining - Global Climate Change, letter to Kevin Rudd, Prime minister Australia
• The hidden costs of clean coal - The environmental and human disaster of longwall mining - Multimedia from The Center for Public Integrity Washington DC. Video filmed in the mine and the effects above ground.
• BHP Billiton environmental damage - BHP Billiton, Fly river, Ok Tedi river, copper mines, Irian Jaya, Barrow Island, deforestation Indonesia, environmental damage, longwall mining.
  At its AGM (annual shareholders' meeting) in London on 23 October, BHP Billiton was attacked over its record in the Philippines, Indonesia, Guatemala and Colombia, its failure to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and its role in worsening climate change and producing a radioactive legacy for future generations.
• BHP Billiton misinformation - BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal - Rio Tinto misinformation and the publics wrong impression of mining. The general manager of sustainable development and external affairs, John Brannon, says facts presented by environmental groups such as Rivers SOS do not always tell all the details and that people should be wary of misinformation.
  Rivers SOS presented the movie Rivers Of Shame 2 in the New South Wales Parliament yesterday, which it says highlights the effects of long-wall mining on rivers and creek beds that are part of the drinking water catchment areas for Sydney Water.
• Politicians and approvals - These politicians approve longwall mining licences which pollutes our atmosphere, damages our rivers, water catchments and your homes
• Mine subsidence - longwall mining and its impact on water resources
• When longwall mining comes to your town - When longwall mining comes to your town, your home is in the hands of the mining company- from the US and applies here in Australia
• The hidden costs of clean coal - The environmental and human disaster of longwall mining - Multimedia from The Center for Public Integrity Washington DC. Video filmed in the mine and the effects above ground.