NSW's new leadership team faces a significant test of its mettle as a ruling looms for a controversial coal mine extension on the doorstep of the Hunter's prime horse country.
The Thoroughbred industry fears Anglo American's Drayton expansion would cause the linchpins of the local industry, the Darley and Coolmore studs, to relocate to more appealing pastures in Victoria.
Dr Cameron Collins, president of the Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association and managing director of the Scone Equine Hospital, said the studs had advised the impacts on air quality, noise levels and visual amenity from the mine extension could prompt them to pull up stumps.
"Relocation is something (the studs) have looked at," he said.
Coolmore and Darley advised the government's Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC) of their concerns in October 2013.
Mr Collins said potential investors shared similar views.
"In the past 12 months, a couple of international investors have looked at the Hunter because of the uncertainty about the future of mining."
Planning Minister Pru Goward, fresh from her role in the Department of Family and Human Services, now holds sway over the approval process.
Extending the mine, known as the Drayton South project, would provide 20 more years of operation, and create an extra 300 jobs during construction to boot.
Drayton South mine could generate $950 million in State royalties and pump $70m into local businesses, Anglo said.
Anglo argues 1500 indirect jobs flow from the Drayton operation to suppliers and the community generally.
Ms Goward's department is considering a report from the PAC, before it returns its advice to the PAC, which will have final say over the mine extension.
Reserves of coal in the Drayton open cut pit will be exhausted by 2015. The operation has employed 500 people for 30 years.
The Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association also has a pitch with impressive numbers: if the studs relocated, the regional economy's net economic loss could be as much as $457 million and $120m in annual spending would go too, while the 350 people who live and work there would be displaced.
Mr Collins wanted due consideration of the sustainability of the Thoroughbred industry.
"Mining is a short-term industry when you compare it against the Thoroughbred industry, which hasn't damaged the environment in its 200 years of existence, and is available to keep on producing into the future," he said.
"To have that put at threat by something that is effectively a destructive industry is madness in our eyes."
The PAC advised the Planning Department that Drayton South should not be approved.
"Thoroughbred horse studs of the nature of Coolmore and Darley, and open-cut coal mining as proposed by the project (Drayton South) are incompatible land uses (which) cannot co-exist in close proximity to one another," the PAC report said.
The PAC now comprises a new set of panel members, who will receive advice from the Department and make a final determination.
Anglo could not be contacted for comment.
Mike Foley
Senior journalist for The Land.
Senior journalist for The Land.
