We passed through the upper Hunter Valley, around Musswellbrook and Singleton recently. The New England Highway cuts very close to some huge open cut mine, almost up to the highway, with huge mountains of grey waste rock/soil and deep excavations down to the coal layers.
Don't get me wrong, I grew up with coal mines, and my forebears were coal miners, but this is so awful.
Its such a shock to come from wonderful landscapes, rolling hills and farms into the moonscape.
We passed through the upper Hunter Valley, around Musswellbrook and Singleton recently. The New England Highway cuts very close to some huge open cut mine, almost up to the highway, with huge mountains of grey waste rock/soil and deep excavations down to the coal layers.
Don't get me wrong, I grew up with coal mines, and my forebears were coal miners, but this is so awful.
Its such a shock to come from wonderful landscapes, rolling hills and farms into the moonscape.
Rosie
I think there was a story recently on 4cnrs and the countryside looked terrible.....
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Judy
"There is no moment of delight in any journey like the beginning of it"
Have you done Cobar, Broken Hill and areas around Castlemaine? Just the same. Hopefully, these days, they will clean up after themselves. I have been to the Ridge where the opals are mined. I want to go to the other opal towns and the big gold mining centres, just to say I have been.
It is when you get off the main roads and see the effects of the old strip mines and dredging that you realise the damage that has been done in the past!
Coal is probably the worst form of mining(Uranium is but I am probably not allowed to say that here).
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Never growing old, just getting dusty around the edges.
Have you done Cobar, Broken Hill and areas around Castlemaine? Just the same. Hopefully, these days, they will clean up after themselves. I have been to the Ridge where the opals are mined. I want to go to the other opal towns and the big gold mining centres, just to say I have been.
It is when you get off the main roads and see the effects of the old strip mines and dredging that you realise the damage that has been done in the past!
Coal is probably the worst form of mining(Uranium is but I am probably not allowed to say that here).
Yes Boothie, I have seen some of the areas you mention, mostly in more remote areas, where its not so green, lush and full of farms. We came through the wonderful horse breeding areas north of Muswellbrook, and it was all beautiful. We went through the moonscape, and the swung into the vineyards. Its a unique area but I was shocked by the destruction - like it didn't belong.
I'm sure they can't rehabilitate the land when its over.
Totally agree Rosie, we were at Norseman some years ago and they were supposed to be re vegetating the place, so sad, and we have been in North Qld of late, what is happening to these great once rural pastures is terrible, I know mining is supposedly great revenue and employers for this country but is it worth the destruction it causes...............I don't know the answer to that but I think I do.
I just need to be ruthless and say that probably the only reason you are on the road is because of those mines. The only reason my avatar exists is because the little green frog, sat in the palm of my hand, lived in a steel pole, probably mined in Australia.
Enough said, othwerwise I will get emtional and men do not get emotional well!
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Never growing old, just getting dusty around the edges.
Just wait till they get into the vast reserves of shale oil? in SA. Enough to make us self sufficient they say. That'll make fuel cheaper won't it?? ha ha ha.
