Vulcan South mine would be an ‘absolute disaster’ for animals including koalas, greater gliders and glossy black cockatoos.
Environmentalists are urging the federal government to block the development of a central Queensland coalmine that would allow hundreds of hectares of endangered koala habitat to be cleared.
The Queensland government approved the Vulcan South coalmine in the Bowen Basin earlier this month without requiring an environmental impact statement (EIS).
But the project still needs approval from the federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, to go ahead.
If Vitrinite is granted final approval for the mine, the company will be licensed to clear 770 hectares of koala habitat, 39 hectares of greater glider habitat, 36 hectares of vulnerable glossy black cockatoo habitat, and 1,024 hectares of vulnerable squatter pigeon habitat.
The federal government listed the koala as endangered in 2022 after a decline in its numbers sparked by land clearing and bushfires. More than 90,000 hectares of Queensland koala habitat was cleared in a single year for beef production, according to 2022 data.
The mine is one of several applications that has been able to sidestep the EIS requirement as it is under the 2m tonne annual threshold.
Vitrinite will mine 1.95m tonnes of coal each year or up to 13.5m tonnes over a nine-year period.
The company has already been granted approval for an adjacent mine, Vulcan, in March 2022 that will also produce 1.95m tonnes each year.
Dr Coral Rowston, the director of Environmental Advocacy in Central Queensland, called on Plibersek to “do better” than the Queensland government and block Vulcan South’s approval.
“The approval of a climate-wrecking coalmine that plans to wipe out more than 300 Gabba-sized football stadiums of koala habitat is an absolute disaster for Queensland’s iconic species,” Rowston said.
“Federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, can and must ... make good on her commitment to no new extinctions by refusing the Vulcan South coalmine and protecting this important area of central Queensland koala habitat.
By Eden Gillespie, Thu 1 Feb 2024 11.00 AEDT