The NSW Environment Protection Authority has ordered Glencore to carry out one year of noise monitoring at Peter and Julie Brown’s home. The order came more than 18 months after the mining company put the Browns on a "complaints only in writing” basis after they called a mine community manager a “bastard” in 2013, and an “idiot” 10 months later.

The Browns abused the mine employee after three years of complaints about low frequency noise from Mangoola’s coal processing plant.

The EPA ordered Glencore to carry out monthly monitoring over one year after Victorian sound consultant Les Huson, for the Browns, disputed that other mines and noise sources, and not Mangoola, were responsible for significant low frequency noise readings in the Brown home.

Mr Huson challenged the view that 73 noise readings over seven nights in a mine noise report was a “robust statistical sample”, and said his 7200 noise readings over nearly three months provided a much firmer footing on which to assess the impact of Mangoola noise on the Brown home.

The EPA will assess the 12 months of Mangoola noise readings against the mine’s licence conditions. The EPA has also ordered Glencore to ensure noise readings are taken during weather conditions that will not rule the readings invalid, after a 2013 report Glencore relied on to say it complied with licence conditions ruled 95 out of 96 noise readings invalid because of the weather.

Mangoola, the former Anvil Hill mine, was approved in June 2007 after extensive public protests and modified twice by 2009. In 2011 Mangoola paid for the Browns, and Mr Brown’s mother June, to live in a hotel because of noise from the mine.

The Browns have not slept in their home since 2011 because of noise levels.

“We’re in no man’s land,” Mr Brown said.