JOINT MEDIA RELEASE – GARDENS OF STONE ALLIANCE
Unity ticket calls to halt Blue Mountains coal destruction
11 August 2025
At the Rise Against Coal public meeting on the weekend, four prominent speakers revealed the true cost of coal mining in the Blue Mountains and ended with a unanimous resolution calling for an end to the damage and to establish a parliamentary inquiry.
‘Today the community and public meeting speakers joined a unity ticket for action to stop coal destroying the Blue Mountains and polluting Sydney’s drinking water, including Labor local member Trish Doyle and Blue Mountains mayor Mark Greenhill’, said Gardens of Stone Alliance spokesperson Andrew Cox.
The Katoomba meeting heard how dozens of rare swamps have been destroyed and Sydney’s drinking water supply polluted by vast volumes of mine wastewater.
Mine water required to be contained in Thompsons Creek Reservoir is instead being discharged without consent into the Coxs River.
Western Sydney Uni Assoc. Prof. and water pollution expert Dr Ian Wright said, ‘high levels of pollution leaking from the primary waste dump at Mt Piper Power Station and mixed with coal mine drainage are flowing into a Coxs River tributary.’
‘This is the worst water pollution site in Sydney’s drinking water catchment that I've seen in 30 years in my science’, said Dr Wright.
NSW Upper House Greens Member, Sue Higginson, told the meeting that ‘Centennial Coal are polluting Sydney’s water supply and that legacy of filth is building.’
The 125 participants unanimously passed a 4-point motion at the end of the meeting calling for a halt to the damage caused by the coal industry in the Gardens of Stone region.
Parliamentary secretary for the environment and state member for Blue Mountains, Trish Doyle, told the meeting that she ‘absolutely support[s] the motion today’ and agreed to present it to the Minns government.
Speaker and Blue Mountains Mayor, Mark Greenhill, also backed the motion and agreed to ‘bring a Mayoral minute to council, supporting your resolution here today and supporting a parliamentary inquiry as you ask us to do.’
‘How did we allow Sydney’s drinking water supply to become polluted and Blue Mountains heritage to be destroyed without effective controls?’ asked Jacqui Mumford, Nature Conservation Council of NSW CEO.
‘It is astounding that Centennial Coal, Energy Australia or the NSW government have no long-term plan to treat and limit the vast amounts of mine waste that will flood out of the mines under Newnes Plateau once these mines start closing from next year.
‘Only a parliamentary inquiry can get to the bottom of this debacle, protect the Gardens of Stone and safeguard Sydney’s drinking water supply’, said Ms Mumford.
Media contact: Andrew Cox
E: andrew@4nature.org M: 0438 588 040
Note: Spokespeople are available for comment on request
Meeting resolution
At the Rise Against Coal community meeting held on Saturday 9 August in Katoomba, 125 citizens on a wet wintry day unanimously supported the following resolution:
To stop the damage caused by the coal industry in the Gardens of Stone region, this public meeting calls for the NSW government to deliver:
- An immediate halt to water pollution and nature and heritage destruction;
- A NSW Parliamentary Inquiry to correct regulatory failures and prevent further damage caused to this sensitive region by the coal industry;
- Protection of Sydney’s drinking water catchment through Labor’s promised river health laws;
- A coal phase-out and rehabilitation plan that secures the health of rivers, nature and the community.
Meeting speakers
Speaking at the Rise Against Coal community meeting were:
- Dr Ian Wright, Associate Professor, environmental science, Western Sydney University
- Trish Doyle, NSW MP for Blue Mountains and Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change, Energy and Environment
- Mark Greenhill, Mayor, Blue Mountains City Council
- Sue Higginson, Greens member of the NSW Legislative Council
About the meeting organisers
The Rise Against Coal community meeting on Saturday 9 August was held at Katoomba Civic Centre and organised by the Gardens of Stone Alliance and Young Nerve. It was followed by the Hardcore for a Cause Protest Concert later that day.
Gardens of Stone Alliance works to protect the Gardens of Stone region north of Lithgow. Its streams, rare and threatened plants and animals, towering cliffs, spectacular pagoda landscape and nationally listed swamps are being damaged by coal mining. Alliance members are Blue Mountains Conservation Society, Lithgow Environment Group, Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Wilderness Australia, 4nature, National Parks Association of NSW and Bushwalking NSW.
Young Nerve is a Blue Mountains music event business and donated 100% of the protest concert profits to the Gardens of Stone Alliance.
ENDS