Mt Owen Mine: biodiversity & land management

biodiversity & land management

rehabilitation

Mt Owen Mine

Mt Owen is committed to the ongoing rehabilitation of disturbed areas to native woodland and forest to provide habitat for endangered fauna known to occur in the area. Mt Owen is leading the industry in the development of techniques to achieve this and has established research links with the University of Newcastle to ensure the best practical rehabilitation methods are developed and used.

Flowering wattle on
rehabilitated mine land at
Mt Owen

Mt Owen places a great deal of emphasis on the standard of rehabilitation, which is highly regarded throughout the industry. Our aim is to maintain Mt Owen’s position as an industry leader by pursuing a proactive rehabilitation strategy and maximising the amount of rehabilitation that we can carry out on an annual basis, thereby reducing the impact of the project upon the surrounding landscape.

The end land use objective for the rehabilitation of the overburden emplacements at Mt Owen is to create a conservation area comprising dry sclerophyll forest and open woodland that will complement the remnants of Ravensworth State Forest and the biodiversity conservation areas being created in surrounding pasture lands. Mt Owen is committed to rehabilitating to native forest communities to the maximum extent practical. This will be through both replicating local dry sclerophyll communities to the extent found to be practical, and through the creation of more open eucalypt woodland with pasture communities. The latter is restricted to areas being rehabilitated with topsoil from previous pasture lands and which contain very competitive species that restrict germination and establishment of many of the forest species.

Aerial view showing progressive
rehabilitation works at Mt Owen

A Plan of Management for Revegetation and Wildlife Management (POM) was developed following the granting of consent for Mt Owen in 1994. The POM was developed by an Advisory Group consisting of representatives from the Department of Environment and Conservation (formerly National Parks and Wildlife Service), NSW State Forests, DOP (then Department of Conservation and Land Management), Department of Primary Industries – Mineral Resources and the Hunter Environment Lobby. The principal role of the Advisory Group is to guide flora and fauna management and rehabilitation and revegetation practices at Mt Owen. The POM was formally adopted on 21 February 1995 and implementation of the POM was a requirement of Mt Owen’s 1994 development consent. The existing POM will be replaced by a comprehensive Flora and Fauna Management Plan, which is currently being developed in close consultation with the Advisory Group.

Implementation of the POM is overseen by the Mt Owen Advisory Group, which is comprised of the previously listed bodies and Mt Owen representatives. The principal goal of the POM was to “re-establish and improve the ecological values of Ravensworth State Forest and specified adjoining area” (POM, 1997). The Advisory Group will be replaced by the proposed Hunter Coalfields Flora and Fauna Advisory Committee (HCFFAC) in accordance with Mt Owen’s new Development Consent (DA 14-1-2004).

Ravensworth East Mine

Ravensworth East Mine does not mine through the same complex habitats and remnant forest as Mt Owen Mine. Prior to the commencement of mining, the Ravensworth East area largely comprised grazing land associated with the Swamp Creek drainage plain, associated footslopes, and disturbed mining areas. At the time of assuming responsibility for the land the majority of remnant native vegetation had been cleared and no areas of significant biodiversity value remained. The nominated end land use for Ravensworth East is flora and fauna habitat. There is also the opportunity to develop corridor linkages with Mt Owen to maximise the benefitsof native vegetation establishment and provide for an overall expanded woodland area.