Martins Creek Quarry Action Group was formed following a public meeting in The Paterson School of Arts Hall . This public meeting was called in July this year following wide ranging community outrage at the dramatic increase in truck movements from Martins Creek Quarry through our rural communities on roads clearly not constructed or funded to take such loadings.
The “joy” of upto 600 truck movements a day through the township of Paterson was also felt by residents of Woodville, Brandy Hill, Martins Creek, Bolwarra Heights and Lorn. The steering committee of MCQAC is comprised of representatives from all of these areas.
Daracon who operate the quarry lease have applied under State Planning Legislation to seek formal expansion of the quarry under their State Significant Development Application Number SSD 6612 which states:
The Martins Creek Quarry Expansion Project, which involves:
- Extracting up to 1.5 million tonnes of hard rock material per annum:
- Expanding into new extraction areas and clearing approximately 36.8 hectares of vegetation:
- Increasing the hours of operation for quarrying to 6am – 6pm (Monday to Saturday), mixing and binding to 4.30am – 10pm (Monday to Friday) and 4.30am – 6pm (Saturdays), stockpiling, loading and dispatch of road transport to 5.30am – 7pm (Monday to Saturday) and train loading to 24 hours per day, 7 days per week:
- Consolidating existing operations and approvals: and
- Rehabilitating the site
If this application is successful then the ramifications for the communities mentioned above will be significant. The rural amenity we all now enjoy will be gone forever, road safety will be greatly affected, damage to properties and our roads will occur, property values will be detrimentally affected with a knock on to many peoples retirement and superannuation outcomes.
Martins Creek Quarry has operated for decades under State Government ownership in harmony with the community. Dungog Council’s 1991 Development Consent for the operation of the quarry was for an extraction of 300,000 tonnes per annum of which 30% could be sent by road the balance was to be shipped by rail. This equated to approximately 24 road truck movements per day. There was also a royalty arrangement put in place whereby Dungog Council received around $300,000 for the maintenance of the road between the quarry and the southern outskirts of Paterson.
Of course the quarry lease has subsequently passed from government ownership to private ownership without any public tender process or community involvement. As a result Dungog council no longer receives any royalties to help maintain the roads. Dungog Council is commencing class IV proceedings The NSW Land & Environment Court seeking declarations in regards to extraction limits, existing use rights and EPL licence limits.
Regardless of the outcome of this legal action the above SSD application if successful will have a major impact on our community.
Martins Creek Road Update
People living along Martin’s Creek Road should not feel immune from threats to their rural ammentity. Please consider the following:
1. Gostwyck Bridge despite its upgrades is still only a single lane bridge and will not cope with upto 600 truck movements a day.
2. Australian Rail Track Corporation has commissioned John Holland Constructions to prepare a design proposal to replace the single lane rail bridge at Martin’s Creek. Keep an eye out for the opportunity to make public submissions. One suspects these notifications will come out close to the Christmas holidays.
3. Guess who has commissioned a survey of Martin’s Creek Road? No, it wasn’t the Council.
Please help us to preserve our rural ammenity and to give our comminity a voice.