It’s time to act to help breeding heavyweights in fight against mine
The Australian racing and breeding industry, so often in competition with each other and berated for its constant internal division, must once again unite for the greater good to immediately lobby against a Hunter Valley mining application which threatens prime agricultural land.
Coolmore and Godolphin, the biggest players in the world of thoroughbreds, have the most to lose and are leading the charge but despite their collective clout they cannot do it alone.
The entire industry, Australia wide, must point out the likelihood of irreversible damage that will be done to properties in the thoroughbred breeding heartland if the Maxwell Underground Coal Mine Project is approved by the Independent Planning Commission NSW.
Written submissions regarding the Malabar Coal underground mine adjacent to the Coolmore and Darley properties close at 5pm AEDT on Friday and the Commission must hear from as many parties as possible voicing their concerns about the proposal.
Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier and Godolphin’s Ross Cole already fronted hearings last week.
The farms have already faced five mining applications in the past ten years and if the latest is approved the ramifications could be catastrophic.
Coolmore says its independent studies show that the mine will lower the water table for 11 kilometres and poses significant risk to the water supply of the Hunter River.
The positive economic impact of mining is irrefutable and it already coexists in the Hunter Valley alongside the major horse studs, a fact acknowledged by Magnier, but the Maxwell project is one step too far.
“For over ten years, Coolmore has had a coal mine across the road we have been trying to stop happening. That mine has been stopped four times, it has then been sold to a company called Malabar and they are now trying to do another mine,” Magnier told RSN927 yesterday.
“We are defending it with all that we have. It’s an underground mine this time, but there’s no difference to the threat to our farm.
“We have just short of 10,000 acres up here of what I believe is the best place to raise horses in the world. We have amazing river frontage to the Hunter River, we’ve got undulating paddocks.
“We’ve raised Winx on this farm. The Hunter Valley is exceptional.”
The Maxwell project cannot be allowed to happen, as previous Commissions have found with similar projects, and the current panel must be told as such by as many in the industry as possible.
It is not just Coolmore and Godolphin who will be impacted. Yarraman Park and Segenhoe would also be directly affected by the project while industry wide it will undoubtedly cost jobs, particularly if studs leave the area as has been floated.
That flows through to not just horse staff, but auction houses, trainers, owners and the hospitality workers who gain work as a result of the industry’s expenditure. Even racing journalists indirectly receive an income from the industry – and we are an endangered species as it is.
You might not think your opinion carries weight, but it does, and if you sit back and wait, it is too late. To make a submission, visit https://www.ipcn.nsw.gov.au/have-your-say.