Pat Devlin on his property near Wandoan, 450km west of Brisbane, yesterday, after losing a Land Court case against coalmining in his area. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen Source: The Australian
AUSTRALIA'S biggest open-cut coalmine will engulf rich farmland, west of Brisbane, after a court rejected a last-ditch bid by local farmers and greens to lock the gate because it would exacerbate climate change .
The rolling cattle and cropping country around Wandoan has become a battleground of the competing interests to produce wealth from mining, food from the land and to abate Australia's greenhouse contribution.
Caught in the middle are life-long farmers such as Pat Devlin, 61, who last night vowed to stay put after the Queensland Land Court ruled to allow multinational Xstrata to press on with the huge coalmine that will border his property. "We're going to sit it out right here," he said. "If they do start mining, we will be pushing as hard as we can to make sure they meet the environmental conditions . . . they are not going to shut us up."
His neighbour, John Erbacher, a son of one of the soldier-settlers who opened up the district after World War II, was not so sure.
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The Australian
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