According to the Lock the Gate website, the protesters established their blockade at the edge of the Leard State Forest and were preventing contracted bulldozers from clearing trees to make way for rail infrastructure.
 
“Whitehaven Coal thought they were ready to start clearing this forest, but they didn’t reckon with the determination of people from far and wide to support the community here and protect this forest,” Leard Forest Alliance spokeswoman Georgina Woods said.
 
“We will not be moved on. We are the only thing standing between this forest and its annihilation.”
 
Fifth-generation Maules Creek farmer Rick Laird’s frustration at the state and federal government approvals for the coal project was also included in the statement.
 
“We have exhausted every legal and political avenue to make our voices heard,” he said.
 
Traditional owner and elder Uncle Dick Talbot said the forest held many significant sites for his people.
 
“Whitehaven Coal has completely ignored our pending legal request for an order to stop work to protect our cultural sites,” he claimed.
 
“I will fight on to save my culture until my last breath.”
 
According to the Newcastle Herald, protesters have attached themselves to equipment while Talbot was denied access to the site by a nearby police roadblock.
 
Contractor Leighton started mobilising to the site in December. Rail spur construction is expected to take 13 months with first coal production due in the first half of 2015.
 
Targeting 13 million tonnes run of mine, the open cut project is about 17km northwest of the main rail line that links the Boggabri town.
 
Lock the Gate is seeking to challenge the state and federal environmental approvals for the project based on its claims of errors with the project’s biodiversity mapping.