Part Two: The history of opposition to coal in the Central Coast and the global impact of the local campaign

Local activism really can drive nationally and globally significant change – which is exactly why powerful people try to dissuade communities from engaging in it.

While leaders like Climate Minister Chris Bowen like to say that calls for no new coal mines is a “slogan not a policy”, in reality it can be both – as shown by anti-coal activism on the NSW Central Coast, between Sydney and Newcastle.

The global impact of activism on the Central Coast was recently highlighted by South Korea’s decision to phase out coal use by 2040. This would likely have been impossible had Korean-owned mines on the Central Coast and elsewhere in New South Wales not been stopped by strong community opposition.

This is the second part of a discussion between myself and long-time Wyong activist Mike Campbell (no relation) on the history and importance of environmental activism on the NSW Central Coast. The first part, covering the 2011 NSW election and the 1970s can be found here.

Without major victories by local activists, the Central Coast we see today would have looked very different. What are now large areas of wetlands, nature reserves and sports facilities, were destined to be coal mines, coal dumps and conveyers feeding a coal-fired power station complex. The whole area of Wyong, Tuggerah, Wyong Creek and Jilliby were to be swallowed up as the southern extension of the Hunter/Central Coast coal and power industry.

Rod Campbell (RC): Mike, we talked earlier about how the Central Coast was saved from becoming a heavy industrial area in the 1970s, but the big fights were yet to come, right?

Mike Campbell (MC): That’s right, big plans for Wyong came in the 1980s, driven by the NSW Electricity Commission, Elcom.

In 1983, a local property owner arrived home to find a bulldozer rampaging through his precious forest in the Ourimbah hills, between Wyong and Gosford. The owner, Tony Spiers, was told that the Electricity Commission was pushing through a major power line, without his knowledge or approval.

Tony went straight to court and obtained an injunction to halt proceedings on his property and a court order to search the files at Elcom headquarters to understand what was going on.

Tony’s search uncovered a series of internal memos and directives that he guessed the relevant Minister would not have approved of.

The Minister at this point was the Hon. Pat Hills, who Tony contacted and arranged a meeting. According to Tony, the Minister was upset by the secretive memos he showed him and asked Tony “What do you want from me?”

Tony wanted an inquiry into what Elcom was planning for the Central Coast, to which Mr. Hills replied, “Leave it with me.”

RC: Is this what ultimately became the Commission of Inquiry into Electricity Generation Planning in New South Wales?

MC: That’s right, that came in 1985 with new minister Peter Cox appointing a highly qualified Civil Engineer Gavan McDonell as commissioner. The final report by McDonell was a really big deal for Australian energy policy governance, shaping electricity planning on the east coast of Australia for decades.

But in the meantime, Elcom’s plans for the area had become clear. They established a glass front office in the middle of town with staff, and a table model of the– two huge coal-fired power stations, one near central Wyong and another at Jilliby, west of Wyong, to be fed by five feeder mines.

The Wyong Valleys were to become conduits of underground coal mining below and high voltage transmission towers above. The whole of Wyong, Tuggerah and the valleys were to be swallowed up in complexes and coal dumps.

There was a real sense of hopelessness among a lot of locals as the well-fed Elcom suits became prominent around town.

RC: So, what turned it around?

MC: The community had started to get organised, from the time Tony Spiers found the bulldozer on his place. Around the same time, the owners of the Pioneer Dairy, which is now a park on the shores of Tuggerah Lake, took court action against one of the power station proposals across their site from the west.

The people of the Wyong region became active very quickly, establishing several groups to oppose the power stations like CRIPS, AMPS and No Olney. Gosford TAFE ran a program videoing the struggle and students doing relevant research.

RC: Did you get any outside assistance?

MC: Yes, we did. Much as our recent campaigns against Wallarah 2 were well supported by wider organisations like Lock the Gate, EDO, Nature Conservation Council NSW and the Australia Institute, the campaign in the 80s was well supported.

For the commission, local submissions got vital inputs from people like Hugo Messerle, Sol Encel and Mark Diesendorf. Bigger groups also helped – Nature Conservation Council, North Coast Environment Council, Friends of the Earth, The Wilderness Society, Total Environment Centre, Hunter Environment Lobby, Intelligent Energy Systems, and Society for Social Responsibility in Engineering.

RC: This was occurring before understanding of climate change was widespread, so was the focus mainly on air pollution and health impacts?

MC: That’s right. And this was the big punch we landed on Elcom.

As Chairperson of CRIPS, I had been gathering much information and found a key document at Newcastle University entitled “The Contribution of Industrial Fossil Fuel Use to Ground-level Sulphur Dioxide Concentrations in the Lower Hunter Region”

Embodied in the study was a section stating that sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere was at a “critical” level in the Doyalson area (north of Wyong near Munmorah). I knew that residents there had been complaining about asthma and other respiratory problems in children, so I called the Lake Munmorah Progress Association and local doctors that believed that the power stations in the area (Munmorah and Vales Point) were the most likely cause.

With the big Commission Inquiry hearing scheduled to happen within days, I asked local doctors to put these air quality concerns on paper, which they did, and the Progress Association gave us their document to present on behalf of the residents of the area as well.

This gave us both a “causal” study from Newcastle University and an “effect” proclamation from local doctors. Considering this was 1985 it was going to be a great media story about the health of children living near these complexes.

RC: So how did you present this to the Commission?

MC: On the morning of the Commission hearing at the Gosford Council Chambers all were assembled – Commissioner McDonell, Secretary Rod Merrick and scribes sitting aloft at the court-style bench, interested public and media in the bottom breaches, and all of the hierarchy of the Electricity Commission of New South Wales – like crows on a fence in the dress circle at the rear.

Following various procedural statements and presentation by Elcom, it was time for locals to speak. Our spokesperson was Tony Spiers, who had found the Elcom bulldozer on his property, and he began a long, arduous address of what had happened and why we should reject this application for the Central Coast.

It was that morning that I had raced to Lake Munmorah to obtain the doctors’ statement which was ready in an envelope at the desk. I had a brief read and could see how powerful the doctors’ testimony about sick local children would be.

I hot-tailed the thirty minute trip back to Gosford and arrived while Tony was still on his feet. I barged my way through and handed him the statement, much to the interest of the Commissioner.

“Commissioner” continued Tony, “I would like to divert from my address to inform you that I have in front of me two documents…one about power station pollution and the other about its affect upon the health of children and the population around Lake Munmorah area”.

There was an eery silence throughout the chamber as these documents were placed before Mr. McDonell. The Commissioner spent several minutes perusing the statements.

“I am suspending the hearing for this session” was the response “and you will be informed of the next sitting, thank you”. The Electricity Commission was stunned.

RC: Wow!

MC: Yeah! If only these days we were able to elicit such a measured and considered response to pollution and people’s health from government agencies or panels!

The local journalists were all there and the media response became widespread over the next weeks. One day I was woken up by a call from Tony and Bev Spiers at 7am, saying “You’d better switch on the television, mate.” The morning shows were alive with debate about power stations and children’s health, and they were interviewing parents at Lake Munmorah.

Every city daily newspaper right across Australia ran stories! I think we had triggered a deep-seated concern that had been submerged for years in other places like the Upper Hunter, Newcastle and Latrobe Valley in Victoria.

RC: So, what was the upshot?

MC: The 1985 Commission found “There should be no more power stations built on the Coast”. Instead, upgrade of existing stations like Mt Piper in the Blue Mountains was sufficient for the foreseeable future.

This was critical. There was upheaval at the executive level of the Electricity Commission. Some long standing members were retired and others sent sideways. The public drubbing from the media exposure had a real effect. Gavin McDonnel’s Commission findings gave a ready tool to the Government to take on the monolith that had been created and had grown without constraint. The scientific input from the expert submissions obtained real content and templates for future power generation and were vital tools for change.

Not long after the Inquiry findings, Elcom placed half-page advertisements in the local newspaper showing smokestacks billowing, with the headline “We Are Giving Up Smoking”, announcing that $121 Million is being spent upgrading Munmorah Power Station including new fabric filter systems. This was a clear admission that the community was right on the money.

This monumental defeat of the NSW Electricity Commission’s expansionist plans was clearly an embarrassment for the government of the day. All official documentation of that time was mysteriously gathered up and spirited away. It’s very hard to find records of much of this now.

The community was never lauded by any level of government for their efforts and press releases to that effect were sparse indeed. There were no photographs of self congratulating politicians. Health effect studies still go unanswered by governments to this day.

RC: And concerns about the health impacts of coal-fired power are still very relevant today, aren’t they?

MC: Absolutely, our latest campaign called Future Sooner started in 2020, aiming to raise awareness of the impacts of the coal-fired power stations in the region.

RC: Good luck with that and thanks for running us through the amazing history of environmental activism on the NSW Central Coast!

I think there’s no doubt that the decades of community effort to protect people’s health and the environment of the Central Coast laid the foundations for the more recent fight against coal exports by Kores. It’s hard to imagine the Korean Government being able to phase out its extensive coal-fired power system if Wallarah 2 and other mines were now up and running and producing millions of tonnes a year.

The Central Coast campaigns really show how local activism can have national and global significance.

MC: Thanks Rod, it’s great to get this history written down and published. Hopefully it will inspire others around the country.