Coal mine proposals in the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area are legend and complex.

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE – GARDENS OF STONE ALLIANCE

Unity ticket calls to halt Blue Mountains coal destruction

11 August 2025

Problem #1 - the approved no discharge design no longer works: A $250 million water treatment plant, commissioned in 2019, faces critical issues. It was designed to be a no-discharge scheme, meaning treated waste was meant to be released as water vapor into the atmosphere through the Mt Piper Power Plant's condensers. However, the plant often operates at much reduced capacity or idles due to the rise of green energy sources, reducing by many megalitres a day the plant’s need for coolant water.

Conservation groups are calling for a moratorium on a swarm of Centennial Coal proposals that would reintroduce mine waste discharges to the upper Coxs River catchment as current waste management is becoming overwhelmed. You can help by writing a short e-letter to Premier Chris Minns.

“A NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) report has dismissed thousands of objections to three clusters of cabins proposed in the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area near Lithgow by claiming the resorts are low impact and not in pagoda landscapes[i]”, Keith Muir of the Gardens of Stone Alliance* said.

Thank you to everyone who made a submission aginst this damaging proposal. The proposal to build serviced cabins for tourism in pristine parts of the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area near Lithgow risks damage to its internationally renowned pagoda landscapes and will set a dangerous precedent.

A proposal to build serviced cabins for tourism in pristine parts of the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area near Lithgow risks damage to its internationally renowned pagoda landscapes and will set a dangerous precedent.

-Commercial accommodation could blight a park’s glorious pagoda landscapes-

Thursday May 2, 2024

Yesterday the NPWS advertised a 31 day public exhibition of an intention to lease three commercial accommodation sites to Wild Bush Luxury, a subsidiary of Experience Co. The lease proposal is for three sites with six cabins and a common lounge building at each site set in a spectacular rocky pagoda landscape in the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area1. 

The surprise backdown that saw NPWS agree to the restart of the public review for two proposed tourism leases in the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area must prompt the incoming Minns government to consider whether to proceed with these developments at all.

On Friday 24 March the NPWS notified Bushwalkers NSW that the Gardens of Stone lease notices for Wild Bush Luxury Experience Pty Limited and Trees Adventure Holdings Pty Limited would be readvertised over the coming months.