“Truck noise is hard to define. It is a mix of roar, whoosh, squeal, clatter, grind – sometimes all together,” Mrs Ritchie said, in an objection alleging 1000 truck movements per day past her house as laden and unladen trucks travel from, and to, Martins Creek and Brandy Hill quarries.

Martins Creek Quarry lease holder, Daracon, wants to increase production from 900,000 tonnes per year to 1.5 million tonnes to provide quarried material to major Newcastle projects.

But in court since February 13 the financially-challenged Dungog Council – which risks huge legal costs if it loses its case – has argued current operations are unlawful, and the existing 900,000 tonnes per year is three times the “lawful development approval” of 300,000 tonnes.

In round one of the Daracon/Dungog Council fight in December, a Land and Environment Court judge ruled in the council’s favour.

Justice Terence Sheahan accepted the council’s argument that it would be “unreasonable and irrational” for the NSW Planning Assessment Commission to determine Daracon’s expansion proposal, possibly not until 2018, without knowing “whether, and to what extent, the quarry is presently operating lawfully”.

Daracon had tried to indefinitely defer the council’s challenge to its current operations until after Daracon’s application to the NSW Government to significantly expand existing operations is heard.

But Justice Terence Sheahan found “no merit” in Daracon’s deferral application, confirmed the February 13 hearing date, and condemned the company’s responses to strong complaints about noise and traffic from surrounding communities over years.

“The respondents (Daracon companies) appear to not even accept the veracity of the community’s complaints, detailed in many affidavits from local residents,” Justice Sheahan said.

Daracon has proposed lifting its extraction rate to 1.5 million tonnes per year and increasing the quarry’s hours of operation to include 4.30am starts and 10pm finishes for some weekday processing, and 6am Saturday starts.   

In its environmental impact statement to the NSW Department of Planning Daracon argued that “onsite observations conclude that during peak periods, the road network associated with the quarry operations functions well, with minimal delay or congestion”.

It argued that 320 laden trucks leaving the quarry each day “would be considered acceptable and an appropriate volume for the capacity of the existing road network and identified haul routes”.

But in response to “strong community feedback”, it proposed a daily maximum of 215 laden trucks leaving the site, with an hourly maximum peak of 40 laden trucks.

In its response Dungog Council argued the community was entitled to rely on original conditions of consent from 1991, when the quarry was operated by the State Rail Authority, which allowed only 80,000 tonnes of rock to be transported by road, requiring 24 daily truck movements.

“At present truck movements exceed on average 220 a day and at peak times up to 582 truck movements per day,” the council said. 

Paterson Progress Association president John McNally represents one of many small communities on transport routes from the quarry.

His group did not want the quarry to close, but the transfer of the lease from State Rail to Daracon in November, 2012, had had a significant negative impact on too many communities, Mr McNally said.

“Nobody’s out to demonise Daracon. Nobody’s out to demonise truck drivers, but they’ve handled this whole thing very badly,” Mr McNally said.

“These trucks run in convoys, sometimes 10 at a time, and the villages along the way just aren’t capable of coping with that intensity of movements.”

In its environmental impact statement Daracon confirmed that in the 12 months between November, 2013 and October, 2014, “the existing quarry produced some 1.1 million tonnes”.

“During that period the quarry serviced some of the region’s largest infrastructure projects including Hexham rail upgrades, Nelson Bay Road upgrade and Newcastle inner city bypass,” Daracon said.

The people of Paterson remember that time as hell, Mr McNally said.

“They took on that Hexham job and the village of Paterson turned into a haul road,” he said.

In court over the past few weeks Daracon has challenged the council’s reliance on the 1991 approval, saying it was unclear if State Rail accepted the conditions of approval.

The court has also heard evidence of subsequent approvals and amendments, and been shown aerial photographs that appeared to show quarrying in areas where it had not been approved.

Daracon has rejected calls to transport quarried material by rail, and Mr McNally agrees it is probably uneconomic to do so.

He has questioned the processing and mixing of material brought to the site, and believes processing closer to Newcastle near major projects would reduce a lot of the traffic issues.

The court case continues.