The Keep the Coal in the Hole protest festival is underway at the Mataura
Community Centre today.
This morning the crowd, ranging from activists to farmers and Mataura
residents, heard from Sid Plant, an Australian farmer who lives next door to an
opencast coalmine.
Mr Plant claimed his neighbouring town of Acland, Queensland, used to have 64
families living in it, but was effectively destroyed by an opencast coalmine and
is now home to only one or two people because of the mine's expansion.
The mining company bought much of the land surrounding Acland and after
expanding into it, many residents of the town moved away because they did not
want to be that close, he said.
''If I lived in Gore, I would be worried,'' he said.
The festival, which was organised by anti-lignite campaigners Coal Action
Network Aotearoa in response to Solid Energy's briquetting plant being built
near Mataura, continues this afternoon and will be wrapped this evening.
Fairfax NZ News
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