Pesented at the AGM 14 July 2012

 

Welcome and thanks

I want to start by thanking the Yula-Punaal Corporation for their hospitality, and to thank their executive and members for inviting us to join them here today. I also want acknowledge and pay respect to the ancestors of the Awabical Nation, the traditional custodians of this Country whose land we enjoy and live and work on.

I also want to welcome and thank our guest speaker Barry Williams from the Hunter Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority who will talk to us about support for land management practices in our valley.

General

During the year, your committee comprising Leonie Sweeney, Mandy Allen, Mick Astles, Col Burzacott, Rob Kothe and I have worked on a range of issues and I want to start by thanking each of them for their hard work. In particular I want to thank Leonie and Rob, Leonie has put in a great effort, she is extremely organised and she helps the rest of us get our work done. Rob has put a lot of effort in, last year into the review and feedback to Centennial on their communication protocol and this year in organising the transcription of the Jim Galvin presentation to the MCA earlier this year. It is now on the web. The book club has been active meeting monthly in the past year; thank you to Joan Satchwell for keeping it on track. The film club has been has been revitalised and also meets monthly with organisation from Leonie Sweeney and the hospitality of Sheila and David Kearns in Little Valley Road, our sincere thanks to all of them.

Mining Progress Report

The mining subcommittee is being co-chaired by Mandy Allen and Mick Astles. Mandy will shortly report on its activities. In recent years subsidence predictions have been accurate and the factors that cause damage to buildings and manmade structures which are tilt and strain have generally been below Centennial Mandalong’s predictions and well within the Safe Serviceable and Repairable limits set by government regulation. Two unexpected occurrences were the compression bump in Sauls road and the stretching and breaking of one strand of the fibre optic cable in Sauls Road. We got Centennial to mark the road in the region of the bump so that drivers and riders are aware of it. The negotiations with the community regarding the Mandalong South Extension project have gone well and we have a good outcome, the activities in the valley will be limited to supplying air and materials (fuel and gravel), and an exhaust air system including air treatment to convert fugitive methane. Methane drainage will continue to be back to the current pithead where flaring should commence this year, hopefully followed shortly by the generation of electricity. People and equipment will also access the mine from the existing pithead.

In the past year our main achievements have been:

  • A significant improvement in Centennials attention to land management, this is still a work in progress
  • Finalisation of the protection of the wetlands half way up the valley by Centennial.
  • We got the Chair of the CCC to provide his first public report and we have senior management attending
  • A significant and continuing improvement in the conduct of CCC meetings, with greater focus on our issues
  • CCC meetings are now recorded, and the papers leading up to the meeting and reporting from the meeting is widely available for all. Also everyone is welcome though the space is limited to 3 or 4

Mandalong Park Proposal

The Mandalong park project has been stalled for the past 12 months, Katherine Simmons, a Wyee resident who through her work at Wyong council has the expertise to advise us has been unable to do so. James Marshall, a social impact consultant to Centennial has suggested some architects who could assist us, however we need resources to progress the proposal. We have asked both LMCC and Centennial to help us with this next stage and are waiting on responses from each of them.

Infrastructure

We are starting to move forward with a review of non-council roads with a view to finding ways in which we can improve this important aspect of our local infrastructure. We have given LMCC a table of roads which need upgrading and last week we received from them information regarding the standards they need to be upgraded to before LMCC will take them over.

Marton Marosszeky

13 July 2012