-well a dirty sort of gold anyway.
Thats the miners catch cry, unfortunately also in them thar hills are communities of graziers, farmers, vignerons, hobby farmers, those who simply want a bit of peace and quite, nurseries and a multitude of other business interests.
More significantly perhaps, also in them thar hills is our natural flora and fauna, the headwaters and natural filtering systems for pristine streams and rivers and the biodiversity that ultimately supports all of us.
When the miners, with the strange blessing of Governments, encroach on prime agricultural land, this naturally leads to conflict and confusion and can only be described as incredibly shortsighted. I am one of those (peace and quite) residents who are being caught up in this stupidity - this is the motivation for this forum.
There will of course be a great range of vested interests in the mining versus quality of life debate; some will simply not care, some will see the depreciation of assets, others will perceive it as an intrusion of their private lives, others may see financial advantages. All views are of course valid and I expect a great range of comments to any articles that may be posted on this forum - it is open to all - subject to "moderation" to prevent illegal, immoral or simply totally over the top comments hijacking the general intention. However, both negative and positive comments will be published without editing.
I plan to post articles relating to local mining issues along with extracts from NSW legislation and various newsletters and such in an attempt to draw the attention of readers to their possible rights and obligations relating to these issues. I am not a legal professional and although I will stick to facts as far as possible, opinions will of course creep in.
Enjoy.