Legal action over mine

PLANS to stop mining near Ipswich have taken a major step forward, with a group opposed to mining resolving to launch legal action.

A meeting of the MDL172 Group met at Rosewood this week to discuss ongoing opposition to mining west of Ipswich.

The MDL172 Group is opposed to mining in that area but is also opposed to reopening mining in Ebenezer.

Mining company OGL Resources plans to start open cut coal mining on an existing mine site at Ebenezer, possibly as soon as next year.

As well as the Ebenezer mining lease (ML47212) OGL also plans to acquire the much larger mineral development licence MDL172.

Although OGL has said it does not have any mining plan for MDL 172 at this stage, it is seen as a concern for those living on it.

Contrary to the previous sparsely-attended meeting, Thursday's MDL172 Group meeting filled St Brigid's Hall in Rosewood with about 150 people, including a number of politicians.

They included Member for Ipswich West Wayne Wendt, rural Ipswich councillor David Pahlke, Member for Lockyer Ian Rickuss and candidates Sean Choat (LNP), Justin Bowman (Katter's Australian Party) and Ursula Monseigneur (Greens).

The residents came from Rosewood, Ebenezer, Marburg, Grandchester and Tallegalla.

"People are saying they want to go ahead with legal action," MDL172 Group president Terri Wright said.

"We're trying to get as many landholders as possible. It makes it easier to get the money together. We think there's 300 landholders in the MDL area.

"We'll be holding fundraising events in the near future."

Barrister Barry Ryan said the essence of the MDL172 Group was that it had "taken the stance that there will be no mining in this area".

"Legal action needs to commence to fix the issue," Mr Ryan said.

"Landholders have rights and are entitled to take that challenge. If you join this group, you should be willing to join legal action.

"Don't think the MDL is going to die. It might die as far as OGL is concerned, but with hundreds of millions of tonnes of good quality black coal, there wouldn't be too many entrepreneurs who would turn their back on that.

"The whole of the area outside the urbanised area of Ipswich - the whole of the West Moreton area - is covered by exploration permits or MDLs."

Neil Harris of Mt Mort received an enthusiastic reaction when he said, "If we're going to attack it, we need to start attacking the most urgent things".

"From there we'll just start knocking dominoes over," Mr Harris said.

But the most enthusiastic reaction was for Lower Mt Walker property owner Ron Smith.

"The people have been held in contempt by the government for far too long. Enough is enough," Mr Smith said.

He moved a motion to proceed with legal action starting with mediation with relevant parties, and the motion was carried.

Another meeting will be held in Rosewood on Thursday.