POLICE and Police Rescue are at the Leard Forest site as protests continue against Whitehaven Coal clearing in the Leard State Forest.
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The 250-strong Bat Attack convergence took their protest festival to the region as the clearing recommenced with 12 people locked down on bulldozers and 200 people rallying at the gates to the mine with a giant Grim Reaper puppet and signs reading “Coal is Dead”.
The protestors are calling for the clearing to stop as the project continues to be plagued by protests, with more than 300 arrests so far over the past two years.
Spokesperson for the Leard Forest Alliance Ros Druce, said NSW Premier Mike Baird needed to know that the “unfinished business of mining reform in NSW will haunt his government until it is resolved”.
“There are precious remnant woodlands proposed to be cleared for coal mines elsewhere in NSW, and other communities fighting large new mines as big as this one,” she said.
“The thousands of people that have come to Maules Creek will now spread out across the state and they will never let the coal industry and the NSW government do this again.”