Queensland Land Court begins hearing conservation group challenge against proposed $1 billion coal mine

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A legal challenge by conservation groups to stop one of Australia's largest proposed greenfield coal projects in Queensland's Bowen Basin has begun in the state's land court.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and Mackay Conservation Group (MCG) have lodged an application in the Land Court of Queensland, objecting to Whitehaven Coal's Winchester South open-cut coal mine.
The $1 billion project is expected to produce up to 17 million tonnes of coal a year over its 28-year life span.
The open-cut mine — set to be located 30 kilometres south-east of Moranbah — would extract mostly metallurgical coal, used to make steel, and thermal coal.
It would involve the construction of a coal processing plant and a rail loop to connect with the existing Bowen Basin coal rail network.
The two environmental groups are expected to argue the court should recommend against the project being granted a mining lease and environmental authority due to its significant environmental and human rights impacts.
ACF climate and energy project manager, Gavan McFadzean, said the project would generate at least 583 million tonnes of climate pollution.
"It's a coal project that will emit more emissions than Australia does in an entire year," he said outside court in Brisbane before the hearing.
"New coal projects simply cannot be approved, if we're to stay within a 1.5 degree [Celsius] pathway."
MCG climate campaigner Imogen Lindenberg said local communities needed to be protected from the impacts of climate change.
"We are already living in a time of climate catastrophes, we can't afford to keep making the same mistakes again and again," she said.
"We can't afford to keep opening brand new coal mines if we're to protect our land, water, climate and our communities.
Whitehaven Coal says the Winchester South project would support 500 jobs during construction and operation.
Whitehaven Coal's barrister Saul Holt KC told the court in his opening remarks, he would outline over the course of the hearing why this was the "right project, in the right place, by the right miner, at the right time."
He said the project was supported by the area's traditional owners — the Barada Barna people — and had "widespread community support".
Mr Holt said there was a "strong demand" from customers for metallurgical and thermal coal over the project's life, in addition to support from the landholder and the neighbouring Eagle Down coal mine which it would have a "significant and ongoing relationship with".
"It promises considerable economic benefit to the local community and the people of Queensland," he said.
He said 60 per cent of the coal mined at Whitehaven would be metallurgical and 40 per cent would be thermal, to be used in electricity production.
In 2022, the Queensland Land Court ruled human rights would be unjustifiably limited by mining company Waratah Coal's proposal to build Australia's largest thermal coal mine in Central Queensland.
Mr Holt said Whitehaven Coal's mine was a majority metallurgical project, which was one of its "many points of distinction" with the Waratah Coal case.
ACF and MCG's barrister Emrys Nekvapil SC said while the applicant would argue the strong economical benefits of metallurgical, its extraction would still have an environmental impact.
"For the present point, metallurgical and thermal coal is all coal," he said in his opening remarks.
"Regardless of the label, its extraction will increase the atmospheric concentration causing environmental harm."
Mr Nekvapil said Whitehaven Coal needed to establish the project would improve the total quality of life for current and future generations.
"This coal mine is proposed to operate for one further generation, the applicant proposes immediate financial and employment benefits for some in the present generation and royalties for the Crown," he said.
"But the generations to follow will suffer the degradation of their ecosystem caused by the cumulative effect of the greenhouse gas emission unlocked by this mine."
The matter is expected to run for at least seven weeks in the Land Court of Queensland, with Judge Nicholas Loos to visit the mine's proposed site over the next three days.
At the end of the hearing the Land Court will recommend whether the mine be refused or approved, then it will be up to the Queensland government to make a decision about whether the project proceeds.
The coal mine project is currently subject to a lengthy approval process.
The state's coordinator general recommended the project proceed in 2023, subject to conditions and recommendations, following an assessment of its Environment Impact Statement.
In 2024, the Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation approved the mine's Environmental Authority (EA) application.
Whitehaven would still need to be issued with an EA and mining lease from the state government.
The federal government makes the final decision and approvals about whether the project gets the green light.