COMMUNITY STORIES
The Real Costs of Dirty Power
AGL’s coal power stations and gas projects place a very real cost on the people and communities that live with these fossil fuels every day.
Over the coming months we’ll profile the stories of these communities and their campaigns for a planned, fair and clean transition away from coal and gas.
Wollar Community
ALG’s power stations in NSW are supplied with coal mined right across the Hunter Valley by companies such as Peabody Energy. These regions have paid the heavy price for decades of destructive mining.
Residents have witnessed the real cost of dirty power — dust, noise, air pollution — and a depopulation of rural towns as families are forced to sell and leave the area.
This year, mining giant Peabody Energy plans to expand their Wilpinjong open-cut coal mine near Mudgee in NSW to feed AGL’s Bayswater power station. The expanded mine will come within 1.5km of residents of the Hunter Valley village of Wollar and even Peabody’s own reports admit it will destroy the town.
Here’s what the community had to share about the encroaching mine.
We’ve been decimated by the Peabody Energy project – a lot of people have left.
Mick Fetch – generational family connections to Wollar
We’ve lost our fire brigade, our churches and social connections as families are forced to move away.
Di Omara – regular visitor to Wollar
The community has been hollowed out – people don’t want to leave but they can’t deal with the noise and the dust.
Bev Smiles – long term district resident and Secretary of Wollar Progress Association
I can no longer live with the impacts of this mine. I have lost my neighbours, friends and support base. If the extension goes ahead I will be forced to leave the place I love.
Sue Schneider, resident of Wollar