Newcastle is a wetland city. The Hunter Valley is home to the Hunter Estuary Wetlands, an internationally significant wetland listed under the Ramsar Convention – a global treaty to protect and conserve these vulnerable ecosystems. The Hunter Estuary Wetlands is also adjacent to the world’s largest coal port, and the threat of expansion of the existing coal terminals puts the future of this precious place at ever-increasing risk. Right now, the site proposed for the fourth coal terminal is part of this globally important Estuary, and shares a border with the Hunter Wetlands National Park. It is widely regarded as the single most significant site for migratory shorebirds in New South Wales, among the top ten in Australia, and was internationally recognised via its listing under the Ramsar Convention in 1984. Twenty-one threatened species are known to use the site, along with 112 species of waterbirds and nationally and internationally listed threatened species, including the Australasian bittern. These wetlands would be destroyed, and replaced with uncovered coal stockpiles. The Hunter Community Environment Centre is committed to the protection of the Hunter Estuary Wetlands, its migratory bird species, its unique wildlife, and to the preservation of its globally significant ecology.
T4 Approval is Now, or Never
Over the next two days, three Planning Commissioners visit our town to make a decision about whether another coal terminal should be approved for Newcastle.
Community Condemns Dodgy Offsets for Fourth Coal Terminal
The Hunter Community Environment Centre has condemned PWCS for the purchase of 242 ha of publicly owned land to act as an ‘offset’ for thedestruction of wetlands and mangrove forest on Ash Island and at Kooragang that are currently public owned and managed for conservation.