NEWCASTLE, Australia, July 12, 2012 (AFP) - - Asia-bound ships queue for weeks outside the Australian port of Newcastle as an endless stream of coal trains wind their way from mine to port.
Environmentalists say the nation's unprecedented resources boom, which will see some US$500 billion pumped into gas, oil and mining projects in coming years, has come at the cost of the environment.
The United Nations has warned the Great Barrier Reef is at risk, while some scientists say it may already be too late to save it due to surging levels of shipping, offshore gas and oil exploration and port expansion.
By 2020 an estimated 7,000 ships will traverse the reef every year, up from 5,000 in 2010, of which one-fifth were coal freighters from Newcastle -- the world's biggest coal export hub in New South Wales state.
The nearby Hunter Valley has seen a six-fold increase in the number of open-cut mines in the past 30 years and locals say they are already feeling the impact as their health declines.
Asthma and respiratory illness have increased as explosive charges blast open new coal seams, and trains -- uncovered and streaming dust -- cross the pitted landscape 24 hours a day. Roads are grid locked.
Huge mine pits have slowly edged out what was once a thriving dairy industry and the community fears that farming could be wiped out altogether if plans to triple Newcastle port's coal output are allowed to go ahead.
"It's a big expansion," said local environmental campaigner Simon Fane, adding that the mining rush was impacting farmland, food production and thoroughbred horse breeding.
"It's globally significant what's happening in Newcastle in terms of the coal."
West Australian
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