While the lay witnesses were hardly asked anything last week, this coming week from 9th May, the experts who at this stage are slated to appear, mainly giving concurrent evidence, will be sure to be questioned.

Will Steffen, John Church and Bethany Warren on climate change and greenhouse gases were to be on Monday but now postponed due to Covid etc, so no Court on Monday; Rachel Wilson and Paul Manley on Energy Markets on Tuesday;  Bill Thompson, Adrian Caneris, Andrew Daniels and Rod Fensham on Ecology and Land Use on Wednesday and Thursday; Bill Thompson on Soil Impacts and Rehabilitation on Friday.

Should be an interesting week if you can get to the Land Court in Brisbane.Magistrates Court Building, Brisbane, Qld.
Level 8
The court is open to the public and anyone can attend, subject to any orders to the contrary.

Members of the public will be able to attend by phone as follows:
02 8310 4080 (for other countries check web browser link)
Use conference code: 24725270#
If you are passing on these details, please be sure to include the following message:
 If you are joining the hearing by audio connection, please ensure that your microphone is turned off, as sound can be heard in the court room.

The court may not be sitting every day, or all of the day, so check:
The Daily Law Lists: https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/daily-law-lists/daily-law-lists#LCQ
Click on the link for ‘Land Court of Queensland’, then in the next window ‘Land Court and the Land Court Appeal’. This will open a PDF detailing any matters before the Court that day. 

Week 3 of our Land Court hearing began with Waratah Coal’s Nui Harris and Social Impacts expert Daniel Holm. Today, Wednesday, the Court will hear from Simon Welchman on Dust and Odour and Shane Elkin on Noise and Vibration. 

A big day on Thursday for TBA, when, after Hilary Bambrick on Public Health, Bimblebox Nature Refuge carer Ian Hoch and TBA president and Refuge co-owner Paola Cassoni appear. Voices from the coalface, so to speak!

Patricia Julien, TBA researcher and fountain of knowledge on biodiversity, will also be questioned that day, after Eric Andersen – whose name may be familiar from his many great bird photos taken on the Refuge, and which we have featured.

Friday will include Carl Rudd, BNR co-owner, and Bimblebox Art Project co-ordinator, (and Instagram poster!) Jill Sampson. Andrew Vitale on Surface Water will be heard after Jill.

Magistrates Court Building, Brisbane, Qld.
Level 8
The court is open to the public and anyone can attend, subject to any orders to the contrary.
The court may not be sitting every day so check:
The Daily Law Lists: https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/daily-law-lists/daily-law-lists#LCQ
Click on the link for ‘Land Court of Queensland’, then in the next window ‘Land Court and the Land Court Appeal’. This will open a PDF detailing any matters before the Court that day. 

Our legal eagles will continue to work through the many aspects of this case as it proceeds in the Land Court. Having begun on 20th April with the site visits to BNR and other properties within the mine area, it is expected to run for six weeks. Our Facebook page will endeavour to give you brief snapshots of matters that strike us as we listen to the hearings, in our ‘Court Catch’ infosquares, shared on Instagram and Twitter.

Witnesses who appeared in Court in Week 2 (26th- 29th April ) included: Nui Harris (Manager at Waratah Coal Pty Ltd); Natasha McIntosh (Principal Scientist and Director at Orange Environmental Pty Ltd); Dr Ross Seedsman and Dr Phillip Pells, Subsidence Experts, in concurrent evidence sessions.

We will publish here the plan for Week 3 of the trial when we receive it.

Meanwhile the Environmental Law web page is a good site on which to find a summary of the history and status of this case. It is replete with links and gets updated.

Media coverage mainly focused on Youth Verdict and the human rights issues around climate change. YV member Murrawah Johnson gave good interviews on radio and TV and in the press, a sampling of which is below. More is filed in Media.

Several press outlets ran the story. Here is the NewsCorp one:

Until 18th March, 2022, TBA had been awaiting a decision on the question of jurisdiction in the Land Court. This had arisen because in April 2021 Waratah Coal advised that it had revised its mine plan and does not presently intend to undertake open cut mining on Bimblebox Nature Refuge.
The proposal to underground mine beneath BNR has not changed, with attendant issues of concern such as subsidence impacts on water and surface ecosystems and habitat conditions for flora and fauna.

The Land Court ruled it can and should hear the application and objections based on the revised mine plan. (https://www.queenslandjudgments.com.au/caselaw/qlc/2022/3)

The Qld Land Court hearing on our case against Waratah Coal started on 20th April 2022, with a visit to Bimblebox Nature Refuge by representatives from all parties: President Kingham and her associates, Department of Environment and Science, Environment Defenders Office, Waratah Coal, and the Department of Natural Resources and Mines.
This autumn has been unusually wet but the rain gods allowed the tour to slot in between two rain events and the tracks were dry.

TBA provided accommodation for DES and EDO, the latter camping in tents – good on them!. (All parties were originally invited to stay at BNR.) Self-represented active objector John Brinnand was also present for the tour, which was done in a convoy of 4WDS with BNR carer Ian Hoch as guide. It seemed to all go very well.
Much work had to be undertaken to prepare for the visit, and several volunteers helped with this beforehand, during and after the event. Work included clearing the tracks (10 km or so) of termite mounds and logs, and sprucing up the art camp, the new tent for which only arrived a few days before.

TBA packed lunches for all participants to have at the camp. Uncle Adrian Burragubba together with Coedie, Nathan, Abraham and Kaylee-Ann set up a Bora ring at the artist camp and welcomed the Court and the parties to Country with a smoking ceremony as well as performing dances. Coedie shared an introduction to Jagalingou lore, drawing upon aspects of the right to culture and the importance of protecting Country and placing people in context as a component of the environment. President Kingham acknowledged the significance of the ceremony, and noted that it is the first time the Land Court has been welcomed to Country during a site inspection for a mining objections hearing;
Everyone was moved by them. Adrian drove all the way from Brisbane just for this and we are very grateful.

As you may have read, the Court made a landmark decision to travel to the Torres Strait to hear on country evidence: a first. (https://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2022/QLC22-004.pdf)
Another first in this case is that a Nature Refuge is objecting to being mined!

The actual hearing starts on Tuesday 26th April in Brisbane and is expected to run for about six weeks. This will be a great opportunity for TBA members and friends of Bimblebox to hear the opening statements of the parties. Youth Verdict will have a presence outside the court.
Any media or updates will be posted on our website, FB page and twitter.

The proposed timetable for the coming week is as follows. Please note that this is just a proposal and must be subject to some flexibility to accommodate for uncertainty.

Hearing – week one

Public attendance

Members of the public are welcome to attend the Land Court on Level 8 of the Magistrates Court Building, 363 George St, Brisbane City QLD 4000 in Court Room 40. Persons can check the daily law list for court room and attendance details the day prior: https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/daily-law-lists/daily-law-lists#LCQ

Members of the public will be able to attend by phone as follows:
02 8310 4080 (for other countries check web browser link)
Use conference code: 24725270#

If you are passing on these details, please be sure to include the following message:
If you are joining the hearing by audio connection, please ensure that your microphone is turned off, as sound can be heard in the court room.