Front Line
These photos show an aerial view of land adjacent to the Leard State Forest where rail loop construction is being carried out by Leightons, contractors for Whitehaven Coal.
The area where the rail loop is being constructed traverses culturally sensitive sites for the Traditional Owners of the region, the Gomeroi people.
This rail loop is being built to support the Maules Creek open-cut coal mine Whitehaven plans to develop in the Leard State Forest. Whitehaven’s plan would see the forest bulldozed, and then the coal mined and taken by rail to the Port of Newcastle for export.
Whitehaven’s Maules Creek Project is the subject of ongoing opposition from local farmers, Traditional Owners, and environmentalists. Learn more here, or get involved to protect the forest here.
Photographs taken 10th February 2014.