Coal Mine Blockaded: 'The Forest Has Brought Everyone Together'

Refusing to be “just the collateral damage of the coal industry,” over 100 protesters succeeded in thwarting work Tuesday on a mining project they say will destroy a forest and the sacred and biodiverse spots within it while contributing to climate change.

The escalating resistance to the Maules Creek coal mine project in Leard State Forest, located in Australia’s New South Wales, has been bubbling for over two weeks.

According to the Lock the Gate campaigners, some of the protesters blocked four entrances to the forest, while others scaled tripod structures and stopped Whitehaven Coal’s preliminary work on the project.

“We’re basically digging in to stop them from using the machines to clear the forest,” the Sydney Morning Herald quotes Georgina Woods, spokeswoman for the Leard Forest Alliance, as saying. “It’s not going to end until this forest gets a reprieve.”

Also taking part in the protest was Maules Creek community member Roslyn Druce, who said, “This blockade has given our community hope that we are not just the collateral damage of the coal industry. It is the forest that has brought everyone together. This blockade is doing the job the Government should have done, protecting an irreplaceable forest.”

Indigenous Gomeroi members have also criticized the government for putting the interests of the coal mining company above importance of their ancestral burials and sacred sites.

“It is not just about coal and money,” Dolly Talbott said during an address on Friday. “For us, it’s also about family. It’s about our heritage, our culture, our ties to this country, that is what is being destroyed.”