Mining industry veteran Kevin Waldock has taken his long‑running campaign against dust pollution to the roadside, erecting a large sign on his property near the intersection of the Golden Highway and Putty Road near Singleton.
The six‑metre by 5.2‑metre sign faces a stretch of road used by more than 3,000 vehicles a day and warns motorists about the health dangers posed by dust pollution. Mr Waldock says years of raising concerns about air quality in the Upper Hunter have left him frustrated.
“No one is listening and the mines simply don’t care that they are covering us each and every day in dust,” he said.
Mr Waldock wants the NSW Environment Protection Authority to change mine consent conditions, arguing current approvals do little to genuinely regulate or control dust. He said all 169 air quality alerts recorded this year across the Upper Hunter monitoring network were for PM10 dust, much of it linked to mining activity, with the majority recorded at Mount Thorley, near his home and Warkworth.
Having worked on all bar one mine in the region, Mr Waldock says his concerns are informed by decades of industry experience. He is also campaigning against the long‑term impact of open‑cut mine voids, which he says pose environmental and health risks.
