Coal and Allied approval – 12th July 2012
On the 12 th July 2012, members of the Planning Assessment Commission, Garry Payne AM, Richard Thorp and Jan Murrell granted Concept Plan approval for the proposed residential development by Coal & Allied of the northern end of Catherine Hill Bay.
This approval will increase proposed new housing by a further 222 housing lots. Last year 550 new lots were approved for the Rose group development at the southern end of Catherine Hill Bay. Now housing at Catherine Hill Bay which currently consists of 100 houses has increased by 772. The small town of Catherine Hill Bay will increase from 100 houses to 872. The impacts will be enormous.
Well researched arguments, presented to the Panel, showed that the land on which new housing was proposed is environmentally sensitive and of great ecological significance.
(Read for yourself in this presentation of the impacts of residential development in this area).
It was acknowledged by the panel that there are constraints on the building of new homes. Catherine Hill Bay, a former coal mining town, has been continuously mined for well over 100 years. Mine subsidence and pothole subsidence will add to the difficulty of building new houses in the Bay with underground grouting needing to be carried out in some areas.
The latest objections to the new development applications by Coal & Allied – 21st December 2010
- Submission to NSW Planning
- Attach 1 – Chronology
- Attach 2 – Environmental Assessment Deficiencies
- Attach 3 – Environmental Defenders Office
- Attach 4 – Heritage Significance of Slack Alley
- Attach 5 – Noise Impact
- Attach 6 – Coal & Allied Geotech
- Attach 7 – Peer review of Geotech comments
Federal Govt approval for C&A at Middle Camp – 29th March 2009
Coal and Allied (a subsidiary of mining giant Rio Tinto), has been given approval by the Federal Government under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to develop land at Catherine Hill Bay .Coal and Allied are the second largest land holders in the Lower Hunter. For more than 50 years this mining company took large profits from underground mining in the area; now that their interests have shifted into open cut mining in the Upper Hunter, Coal and Allied no longer wish to keep this land. A deal has been done with the State Government to return a proportion of the land in exchange for development rights on land not zoned for residential development. Surely a case of “double dipping” by a wealthy mining company turned developer.Whilst we applaud the giving of land to the State Government to create a continuous Green Buffer between the Wallarah National Park and the Munmorah State Conservation Area, residential development in Catherine Hill Bay will have a serious impact on a significant wetland as well as destroying endangered threatened flora and fauna as the proposed development area cuts across animal corridors.
Independent Panel Report on Coal & Allied Concept Plan – 17th July 2008
The Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel states that any development in Middle Camp should be located only on land that has been previously disturbed and that is visually separate from the existing village. There will be no development behind the houses to the west of the village (area C) or in Slack Alley (area D).
Formal Objections to the Coal & Allied proposal – 25th February 2008
Below is the formal objection sent to the Department of Planning by the Catherine Hill Bay Progress Association to the development proposed by Coal & Allied.
- C&A submission main text
- Attach 1 – Core position of the Association
- Attach 2 – Community profile
- Attach 3 – Social Infastructure and Developer Contributions
- Attach 4 – Review of Ecological Bushfire Assessment
- Attach 5 – Traffic Assessment Advice
- Attach 6 – Heritage Assessment Advice
- Attach 7 – Heritage Assessment Advice
- Attach 8 – Heritage Advice on Development Area D
- Attach 9 – Community Consultation Comments
- Attach 10 – Illustrated Analysis of Proposed development impacts
- Attach 11 – Chronology of Planning Protection – 1969 to present
- Attach 12 – Previous undertakings to Government and Community by C&A
Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel presentations – 12th February 2008
Some of the presentations from the Progress Associaiton to the Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel.
