More than 30 Woodstock farmers met with NSW Farmers vice president Chris Groves and Regional Services Manager - Central West, Catriona McAuliffe at Woodstock Bowling Club this week and voted to call for mining company representatives to address them on exploration activity in area.

Iron ore company Fortescue, which is diversifying into gold and copper, has taken over exploration licences over a number of properties from Canowindra, along the Belubula, over to Woodstock and as far as Wyangala.

A number of farmers at the Woodstock meeting expressed concerns relating to ecological damage that could be caused by exploration, particular to limestone cave networks in the area.

They were told however that even if they tried to stop exploration in the courts they are unlikely to be successful.

Ms McAuliffe told the farmers of experiences about other farmers in the Liverpool Plains area and also in the Young area.

“You can’t actually stop mining exploration,” Ms McAuliffe said.

“What we can do is try to get the best outcomes from an access point of view.

“Farmers in Young are dealing with cobalt and nickel (exploration). They have been issued with letters to notify of exploration and have been given land access agreements and been offered money to seek financial advice.

“What they’ve done is collectively look at the land access agreements and what they can do to ensure they get the best outcomes.

“Ultimately they might object to the mining taking place at all.

“They’ve received (legal advice) that you can’t stop exploration if you are of a mind to block mining the more information you can get in the exploration stage the better.

“You can make it really difficult for the companies, you can take it to the Supreme Court if you want to, you won’t win.

“There’s a lot to consider, especially financially, if you want to go down that track,” she said.

Those present were reminded that an agreement to exploration wasn’t an agreement to mining.

Asked by farmer Richard Mallon “why wouldn’t we win?”, Ms McAuliffe said “ultimately the minerals under the ground don’t belong to the land owners”.

Farmers on the Liverpool Plains, she explained, were able to stop mining but not the initial exploration.

“You can make it difficult but everyone is out of pocket and you won’t actually win,” Ms McAuliffe said.

Mr Mallon suggested that the farmers present should not be allowing the companies access to their land.

He said he had told the companies “no” and they simply went away.

“Woodstock will be gone if they find a mine here, the whole town will go, surely we can protest,” he said.

Exploration in the area, the farmers present, said had been ongoing for the past two decades, some of it in “very fragile” country with the potential to “ruin something that is very unique”.

Others told how they had been told even though some of the country is heritage listed “if there is gold there we will dig for it”.

Others expressed frustration they no longer knew who was even behind the exploration due to the on-selling of the licences to explore.

Mr Groves said NSW Farmers, on behalf of the Woodstock farmers, would now carry out its own investigations regarding who is behind the exploration, what rights the landowners hold when their country is heritage listed or in a sensitive area.

NSW Farmers will attempt to hold another meeting, with mining officials present, in Woodstock in February.

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