IN a Camberwell cemetery on Tuesday, with headstones as a backdrop, a Hunter woman told a Sydney court judge about coal and the death of towns.

Coal was ‘‘the thing we have loved, needed, prospered from, reviled and detested at times’’, former Singleton councillor Lyn MacBain told Land and Environment Justice Nicola Pain as the two women stood in the shade of a picnic shelter.
It was also the thing that has forced 40 families to leave Camberwell since 2004, leaving just four of the original families behind, Mrs MacBain said.
‘‘I have watched hardened men cry when they could no longer live with the impacts, and felt forced to leave land left to them by generations, and which they expected to pass on to the next,’’ she said.
Mrs MacBain was one of a number of residents who addressed Justice Pain in Camberwell on Tuesdayduring a Land and Environment Court appeal by the Hunter Environment Lobby against the Ashton Coal south-east open-cut mine proposal.
The appeal opened in Sydney on Monday, travelled to Camberwell on Tuesday, and will sit in Singleton court on Wednesday,where residents will be cross-examined by Ashton Coal about their objections to the mine extension.
In her 15-minute address in the grounds of St Clements Church and cemetery Mrs MacBain compared the destruction of Hunter mining towns to overseas examples of residents being forced to leave their homes.
‘‘Week after week we watch news reports showing governments forcing people from their homes. We empathise, we get angry, but right here we have family after family being forced from their homes by imposed circumstances,’’ she said.
‘‘It is the clearance of Scotland and Ireland without the physical brutality. Since 2004 more than 40 families just in the village area. Gone. And other villages. Ravensworth, gone. Warkworth, gone. And Camberwell, like Bulga and Jerrys Plains, is just hanging on.’’
Mrs MacBain described the Hunter Region as the ‘‘cash cow for the state’s coffers, whether it was sheep, cattle produce or coal’’.
‘‘Your Honour, I can give you all the names, dates and history. I can research and document any event and give it to you in hard copy. But what I can’t give you in hard copy or express adequately is the feelings of despair at the sense of loss of place this community, and parts of the wider community of Singleton, are feeling.
‘‘This place deserves better than it is getting from the state and federal governments and individual government departments.’’
Mrs MacBain told Justice Pain she was the wife of a miner and an asthmatic.
After the judge and lawyers for the Hunter Environment Lobby, Ashton Coal and Planning Minister Brad Hazzard left the cemetery to meet with Camberwell residents, Mrs MacBain spoke about the impact of extremely high dust levels on communities.
‘‘I’ve come out here and cried sometimes. Health-wise, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to continue. On some days when it’s really bad I can hardly breathe. On those days we’re told to shut all the windows and doors and stay inside.
‘‘That’s what people who don’t live here don’t realise. We’re constantly told about the importance of mining for the state, but we’re paying the cost for everybody else.’’
Mrs MacBain said she was looking forward to her husband’s retirement next year.
‘‘We’ve been talking about how difficult it is for me to live here, and how his retirement next year means we’re going to travel. That might give us a bit of a reprieve.’’
Mrs MacBain said she did not blame Ashton Coal and other mining companies for seeking mine approvals.
‘‘I don’t blame them. They’re only doing what the law says they can. I blame NSW governments, because they’re supposed to regulate the mines and care for communities. But there’s too much easy money at stake.’’
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Camberwell property owner Wendy Bowman. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Camberwell property owner Wendy Bowman. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Camberwell property owner Wendy Bowman. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Camberwell property owner Wendy Bowman. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Local Historian Lyn MacBain at St.Clement Anglican Church grounds at Camberwell Local Historian Lyn MacBain at St.Clement Anglican Church grounds at Camberwell. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Local Historian Lyn MacBain at St.Clement Anglican Church grounds at Camberwell. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Local Historian Lyn MacBain at St.Clement Anglican Church grounds at Camberwell. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Local Historian Lyn MacBain at St.Clement Anglican Church grounds at Camberwell. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Local Historian Lyn MacBain at St.Clement Anglican Church grounds at Camberwell. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Local Historian Lyn MacBain at St.Clement Anglican Church grounds at Camberwell. Picture Dean Osland.
Scenes from Camberwell. The village, which has lost 40 families since 2004, is challenging Ashton Coal’s expansion plans in the Land and Environment Court. Local Historian Lyn MacBain at St.Clement Anglican Church grounds at Camberwell. Picture Dean Osland.
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