File:Aerials of Leard State Forest and surrounds.jpg

English: 10th February 2014: (L-R: Davey, Julie Macken from Greenpeace and Neville. Davey and Neville are Elders of the Gomeroi Peoples, Traditional Owners of the region) The Leard State Forest is Gomeroi Country who have been fighting for due process in the assessment of the area by Whitehaven Coal. The company have been duplicitous in their dealings with the Traditional Owners of the land and the Elders have been locked out of Country. Leard State Forest in NW New South Wales includes the most extensive and intact stands of the nationally-listed and critically endangered Box-Gum Woodland remaining on the Australian continent. The forest is home to 396 species of plants and animals and includes habitat for 34 threatened species and several endangered ecological communities. Two open-cut coal mines are already operating and have approval to expand further into Leard State Forest. A third open-cut coal mine, Maules Creek Coal Mine owned by Whitehaven Coal, is approved and expected to begin production in 2015. Together these mines will clear approximately 5000 hectares, more than half of Leard State Forest, and produce 20 million tonnes of coal that will be railed to the Port of Newcastle for export. Maules Creek is the largest coal mine currently under construction in Australia. Farmers, Traditional Owners, national and local environment groups and local residents have been blockading Whitehaven’s construction efforts.