Metropolitan Colliery

The Metropolitan Colliery is a coal mine located near Helensburgh, New South Wales owned by Peabody Energy.^[1] It was opened by in 1887 by the Cumberland Coal & Iron Mining Company. In 1965, the mine was purchased by Australian Iron & Steel.^[2] A proposed sale to South32 in 2016 was abandoned after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission refused to approve it.^[3][4]

Coal is exported from Port Kembla with the mine connected to the Illawarra railway line via a spur line.

The company is currently mining underneath the protected 'Special Area' of the Woronora DamWoronora Reservoir catchment, directly underneath the Reservoir.^[5] In 2020, over 10,000 people signed a petition calling on the mining to stop, as a result of concerns about water quality and subsidence damage.^[5]

The text of the petition read as follows:

"This Petition of residents of Southern Sydney and the Greater Sydney region brings to the attention of the House the risk that longwall coal mining under Woronora Dam brings to our water supply. We have a right to expect a clean and secure water supply, unpolluted by contaminants. The government is required under the Water NSW Act 2014 to ensure this. Metropolitan’s longwall mines have already caused serious damage to the Woronora Dam catchment area – WaterNSW’s submission to the Independent Report into Mining in the Catchment notes the detrimental impact Metropolitan’s longwall mines 23-27 have had on the Eastern Tributary of the Waratah Rivulet, with ‘Unexpectedly high levels of surface cracking (along the creek and at pool / rockbars) and consequent drying of a large proportion of pools.’ (p.B4) Two swamps that filter and clean our water have also shown signs of drying out – with groundwater levels ‘not having recovered many years after completion of mining.’ (p.B5) Further damage has occurred at the main part of the Rivulet, with riverbeds seriously fractured and pools completely drained. WaterNSW note mining in this area has resulted in ‘environmental consequences [that] have caused (or are likely to cause) breaches in conditions in the relevant development consents, including performance criteria to protect watercourses and Sydney’s drinking water catchment’; and, there are ‘numerous deficiencies in the manner that analysis and modelling is currently being used to support mining applications.’ (p. 1, p. 7) The area around Woronora catchment is a ‘Special Area’ – so protected that people are not even allowed to walk in there – fines for doing so can be up to $44,000. Metropolitan longwall mines LW20-27 in this same catchment area have already caused significant and unacceptable damage. Metropolitan’s current proposal to mine under the dam itself - LWs 303-317 - poses a far more aggressive threat. WaterNSW notes ‘there is a high level of uncertainty about the likely success of future remediation efforts in both watercourses and swamps.’ (p. 5) Injecting polyurethane into cracks to ‘remediate' damage that has already been caused, and may be caused in the future is not an acceptable solution. The undersigned petitioners therefore ask the Legislative Assembly to stop further threats to our water supply and rescind the development consents that permit mining in this area."^[6]

The petition was debated in NSW State Parliament in 2020, and was rejected by NSW State Labor, and Liberal National Party politicians.^[7]

In 2022 the Colliery achieved notoriety for polluting Australia's oldest National Park, following the discharge of coal sludge and waste into a creek running into the Hacking River, which flows through the length of park out into Port Hacking itself. The event was reported on all major Australian news outlets.^[8]