Ten wombats at a controversial Bylong mine site were 'culled', but questions remain about how and why

NSW Government agencies are under fire over the response to allegations Korean Government-backed mining company KEPCO poured old engine and sump oil down wombat holes at the controversial proposed Bylong coal mine site to rid an area of problem wombats.
A KEPCO spokesperson on Tuesday strongly denied the allegations as “completely false and vexatious”, but confirmed the company obtained a National Parks and Wildlife Service permit to “cull” 10 wombats. The wombats were infected with the parasitic skin infection mange, KEPCO said.
But in a response to questions about the sump oil allegations, the permit, and further allegations KEPCO obtained the permit to shoot wombats chewing through stock water pipes at Bylong Station, the Office of Environment and Heritage said landholders “can obtain a permit to cull protected native animals threatening human safety, damaging property and/or causing economic hardship”.
It would not confirm the NPWS permit to KEPCO “for privacy reasons”. It has not responded to a question about whether it verified any wombats had mange.
The OEH confirmed the Environment Protection Authority referred a complaint on September 6 to the NPWS about KEPCO staff being directed to pour used sump and engine oil down wombat holes on Bylong Station between Denman and Mudgee.

Protests: Protesters at a Planning Assessment Commission hearing in 2017 into the controversial Bylong coal mine proposal between Denman and Mudgee.
“OEH conducted an inspection of the areas on the property, detailed in the allegation, and found no evidence of oil or oil residues around wombat burrows,” an OEH spokesperson said.
But the complainant has told the Newcastle Herald he has not been contacted since reporting the allegations, and former KEPCO staff who could assist an investigation have also not been contacted.
“They would have just rung KEPCO and KEPCO would have said everything’s fine,” said Bylong Valley Protection Alliance secretary Warwick Pearse, who noted community anger in 2016 when the NSW Government dropped a prosecution against KEPCO for using false photographs to support the Bylong mine proposal. The government accepted an enforceable undertaking from KEPCO instead.
“I can take them out there and show them where it is,” said a former employee who alleged workers were directed to spread used oil along a water pipe to deter wombats.
When contacted by the Herald to say a second man had backed what the original complainant had alleged, the OEH asked for the man to contact the department.
But the original complainant questioned whether the government agencies had conducted any investigation and said he had not been contacted since calling the EPA in early September.

Purchase: A KEPCO site in the Bylong Valley. The company has proposed a major underground and open cut coal mine to supply quality coal for South Korean energy consumption. The company said it has already spent $700 million on the project.
“It’s not the right thing to do, pouring oil on the ground for any reason, let alone down a native animal’s burrow,” said the complainant.
“The EPA fellow I spoke to sounded like he wasn’t very happy about it and he took my details but nothing’s been done about it.”
The complainant was unaware the wombat hole allegation was not substantiated by the NPWS or OEH until advised by the Herald following questions to the government agencies.
A KEPCO spokesperson said the company “does not endorse the use of oil to harm any animal” and “wombats are not culled for the purpose of preventing access to water pipes”.
KEPCO sought a permit to cull 10 wombats infected with mange “for animal welfare reasons” and a licensed pest control officer had completed the work.

Beauty: The historic Bylong Valley between Denman and Mudgee is renowned for its beauty.
“The cull of the 10 mange-infected wombats has been completed under the terms of the permit granted by NPWS. KEPCO is proud of its reputation in the way it manages its agricultural properties and applies the best possible standards in the Bylong Valley,” the spokesperson said.
The wombat allegations were raised as Bylong Valley Protection Alliance and other groups expressed their concerns about the make-up of an Independent Planning Commission panel tasked with making a final decision about the controversial Bylong mine, which the NSW Department of Planning last week concluded was “approvable”. The IPC will hold a public meeting in Mudgee on November 7 as part of its assessment process.
In a letter to IPC chair Professor Mary O’Kane this week Mr Pearse said the mine’s potential threats to farmers’ groundwater resources and the loss of prime agricultural land were “issues of utmost importance”, but panel members did not appear to have expertise in those areas.
“Water issues are paramount. We believe the IPC panel needs to have at least one panel member with extensive experience and expertise in the area of groundwater and water resources,” Mr Pearse wrote.
“Because the Bylong coal project is a greenfield mine in an important area of prime agricultural land with over-allocated water entitlements, we consider it essential for the IPC panel to have independent expertise on water.”
Mr Pearse said community and environment groups were disappointed Professor O’Kane would not be on the final panel because of her expertise, and because “the community has concerns about the independence of advice from the Department of Planning”.
