Activist Scott Franks pursuing Singleton-to-Musellbrook Aboriginal heritage protection after victory against Glencore over Ravensworth homestead

While Glencore is the main company affected, Yancoal and Bloomfield also have operations in the application area.

Glencore told its workforce this week that the application under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 (ATSHIP Act) threatened the jobs of some 3300 workers.

The application in question was lodged in July 2020 by activists Scott Franks and Robert Lester on behalf of the Plains Clans of the Wonnarua People, one of a number of Indigenous groups claiming to represent the area.

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Mr Franks had also opposed Glencore's plans to extend its Glendell mine, which were refused in October by the Independent Planning Commission, which ruled that extending the mine would have "significant, irreversible and unjustified impacts" on the historic Ravensworth Homestead.

Glencore has not appealed that decision but Mr Franks said yesterday that Glencore still wanted to mine it.

The Glendell decision covered 750 hectares as well as the homestead. Glencore says the Aboriginal heritage application under federal law covers 156 square kilometres or 15,600 hectares, which is more than 20 times the size of the area involved in the Glendell IPC decision.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), which also represented Mr Franks at the IPC hearing, said the Section 10 application did not affect existing mining operations or projects approved before the application was lodged in July 2020.

The federal government says the final decision lies with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

"The former minister, Sussan Ley, received an application ... under Section 10 of the ATSHIP Act seeking protection for an area known as Ravensworth, Bowmans Creek and Glennies Creek in the Upper Hunter Valley from the claimed threat of coal mining and associated activities," the departmental spokesperson said.

"The current minister is yet to make a decision on the application."

The Newcastle Herald understands the former minister commissioned an independent report on the Section 10 application by an independent anthropologist, Daniel Leo, which was submitted to the department in June 2021.

A Glencore spokesperson confirmed its Hunter workforce had been briefed this week on the potential impacts of the application, which it said covered an area of approximately 156 square kilometres, known as the "specified area".

"Glencore believes that there is no credible basis for making a declaration in relation to this Section 10 application and that there are material flaws in the Government Reporter's assessment process and report on the application," Glencore said.

"If the Federal Government makes a declaration over the 'specified area' in the assessment report, it could unreasonably impact parts of our mining operations in that area despite these operations and their associated infrastructure having been in place for many years,.

"We are concerned about the ATSIHPA Act process as the federal government's final decision on the Section 10 could have an adverse impact on some of our operations and flow on impacts to our workers, suppliers, and the community.

"Glencore has a long history of working closely with Aboriginal communities throughout the Hunter Valley," the spokes We believe the preservation of significant Aboriginal cultural heritage can and does successfully co-exist with mining operations in the region."

In an interview with the Herald yesterday, Mr Franks criticised Glencore on a number of fronts, saying the Aboriginal groups it worked with did not represent the region legally.

Mr Franks said that although Glencore had not appealed against the decision barring the Glendell extension, it was apparent that they still wanted to mine the area.

He said plans had been discussed before COVID interrupted things to have the historic homestead, which dates from 1832, moved to McNamara Park in Singleton.

He said moving the homestead was again being discussed.

He said this would destroy its heritage context, which was especially important given the well-documented massacre of Aboriginal people in and around the Ravensworth Estate in the 1820s.

He said his family history was a mixture of Aboriginal and colonial ancestry, and that Ravensworth Homestead was of extreme importance to "white as well as Aboriginal history".

Mr Franks, who now lives in Sydney, said he was shocked to learn that Singleton Council had voted on Tuesday, February 21, to oppose a heritage listing of the Ravensworth Homestead complex, following a motion lodged by councillor Tony McNamara.

He said the EDO had subsequently written to the NSW Heritage Council seeking an urgent interim protection order.

On the Aboriginal heritage application, Mr Franks said a similar Section 10 application had been granted by Ms Ley over land at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, after only six months, and he questioned why the Wonnarua application was still undecided, despite the government having had its confidential expert report for almost two years.

"That's right, there's no coal mines at Mount Panorama," Mr Franks said.

Yancoal said it was aware of the application but could not comment on the contents of the report to the minister, which was confidential.

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