Paterson PSST March 2015

This month we have a State election and it is a chance for us to elect politicians to represent us and our communities. Many residents of  the Paterson  and adjoining areas have already experienced living with the ineptness of our current crop of politicians and bureaucrats with respect to how the increased truck traffic  from Martins Creek Quarry has affected our  daily lives.  Following the pictures of the jack knifed truck in the last issue here are some further examples how the increased truck activity has reduced the road safety and amenity of our region

A truck and dog was also clocked doing 90kph in an 80 zone and 110kph in a 100 zone on Gresford Rd. The incident was reported to Daracon.

All Upper Hunter, Maitland and Port Stephens candidates in the upcoming elections were sent briefing notes about our quarry issue and have been invited to meet and discuss our issues. The following are the candidates we have met with todate;

Michael Johnsen – National Candidate Upper Hunter

Martin Rush – Labor Candidate Upper Hunter

Steve Thomson – Liberal Candidate Maitland

Phillip Penfold – Independent Maitland

We are hopeful that these candidates now have a better understanding of the issues and will make a public statement as to their  positions before the election

Paterson PSST February 2015

Thank you for the support and positive comments generated by our last newsletter in the Paterson PSST. Our  website is now operational as is our facebook and twitter pages.  We  would commend  viewing the facebook photos as they say a picture says it all and some of the pictures demonstrate the madness of putting such large number of trucks amongst our community and using our roads as a haul road

Many people have been saying that the dramatic increase in truck and dog movements would lead to an accident. It was  not a matter of IF but WHEN. 

Well the 8th of January 2015 was the fateful day and thank goodness no one was injured. The potential for injury was great given the location. 

An empty truck and dog  travelling to the quarry ran out of diesel on the hill leading to the dog leg  bend on the Prince St intersection. The driver decided to reverse down the hill in an attempt to put the vehicle off the road  on a pull off at the bottom of the hill. Applying the brakes as it rolled down the hill the truck’s air supply was soon exhausted and as a result the truck’s brake system was engaged.

As a result the truck jack knifed across both lanes. It was lucky there was no on coming traffic. These actions would indicate that the driver was extremely unprofessional, inexperienced or just a cowboy. In any case the traffic was thrown into chaos for two hours with traffic travelling through back streets as well as Tucker Park using an unformed track and ignoring load limits. If this happened several hundred meters along the road there would have been no detours and no vehicle traffic would have been able to move for two hours

The residents of Paterson enjoyed a respite from the daily truck onslaught through the town  during the Christmas shut down of the quarry, however things returned with a vengeance on the 5th of January culminating in the above incident on the 8th of January. MCQAG continue to monitor the truck movements between 5.00am and 5.00pm, and the members of the committee have made representation to the Council highlighting the multiple hundreds of truck movements still occurring September-14 through to present.

As previously advised the number of truck movements allowable under Dungog Council’s  DA consent conditions is just 24 per day calculated as an average to equate to the allowable annual tonnage under the DA.

Paterson PSST November 2014

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. 

EPA issues fines for breaches at Martins Creek Quarry

During the months of February through September 2014, Daracon fulfilled supply contract deliveries by road of ballast and rock to the Hexham Relief Rail Project. The project culminated in more than 140,000 tonnes of material being exported from the mine site in just a single month by residential roads ... and the issuing of two EPA penalty notices to Daracon subsidiary Buttai Gravel Pty Ltd for Environment Protection Licence breaches read about it in this Herald article

100 trucks come a rumbling by 7am

Members of Paterson, Brandy Hill, Bolwarra, Lorn and East Maitland residential communities began asking questions in March 2014 as to why there has been a 4 to 5 fold increase in mine haul truck movements through their urban streets, read more in this Newcastle Herald article