The Queensland Land Court has recommended that Whitehaven Coal’s Winchester South project be approved, after hearing objections from the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Mackay Conservation Group. Land Court member Nicholas Loos recommended that the mining leases and the draft environmental authority be granted for the open cut mine, about 30 kilometres south east of Moranbah in the Bowen Basin, in a 126 page decision handed down on Friday.
Winchester South is designed to produce up to 17 million tonnes of run of mine coal a year, primarily metallurgical coal for steelmaking with some thermal coal, over a total mine life of about 35 years. Whitehaven’s published project information puts resources at an estimated 1.1 billion tonnes and reserves at 380 million tonnes, with development plans including a coal processing plant and rail infrastructure connecting to existing Bowen Basin export networks. The indicative capital cost is about 1 billion Australian dollars, and Whitehaven is studying operational integration with its neighbouring Daunia metallurgical coal mine.
The court did not dismiss the environmental case. It recorded factors against approval, including the greenhouse gas emissions the operation would contribute and the disturbance of about 6,950 hectares hosting a variety of flora and fauna, with habitat for endangered species such as koalas and gliders. It recommended strengthened rehabilitation conditions, including further surveys, sampling and monitoring, a mineral waste management plan, and ecological surveys of threatened species before construction begins. The environmental groups said they were considering their next steps.
The legal structure matters. A Land Court recommendation is not an approval: the decision now passes to the chief executive of Queensland’s Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation and the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, who determine whether the mining leases and environmental authority are granted. The project also continues through the Commonwealth approval process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, and it previously received a conditional recommendation from Queensland’s Coordinator-General in November 2023 following its environmental impact assessment. Whitehaven welcomed the judgment and has given no final investment decision date.
Jurisdiction note: the case is the latest test of how Australian courts weigh a single project’s climate impact, with the court reasoning that refusing this mine alone would have no practical effect on global emissions. That reasoning, now on the record in a contested hearing, is the precedent other Bowen Basin and Hunter Valley applicants will cite, and the ministerial decisions that follow are where it gets tested politically.