A whopping 590 hectares of land has been rehabilitated at Stanwell’s Meandu Mine, over its life, with the entire area returned to native vegetation to ensure a seamless ecosystem with the Mine’s bordering Yarraman State Forest and Tarong National Park.
After extensive community and landholder consultation in recent years, the Mine has now earmarked an additional possible future land use for future rehabilitated areas -— grazing and plantation forestry.
Environmental Specialist, Paul Veivers, was part of the team responsible for planning, executing, and monitoring Stanwell’s rehabilitation activities at Meandu, and said that all rehabilitation was planned long in advance.
“We genuinely care about the legacy we leave behind for our host community, so rehabilitation is a key part of the operations at Meandu Mine,” Paul said.
“All rehabilitation is done with the end in mind, keeping things in line with our Environmental Authority and Life of Mine Plan.
“After feedback from our local communities, our approved post-mining land uses have expanded to include beef cattle grazing and plantation forestry, in addition to the existing native ecosystem rehabilitation.
Stanwell is committed to its host community in the South Burnett, now and into the future.
Paul said he worked and lived in the South Burnett community too, so he was passionate about ensuring the future uses of Meandu Mine were based on what’s best for the community’s needs.
“We’ve met with the community and local landholders in community forums and meetings about rehabilitation of the mining area, and future land uses for Meandu,” he said.
”In those meetings, grazing and forestry were identified by our South Burnett community members as two other future uses for the land which would provide ongoing benefits to the region.”
Stanwell recently received official certification of 153 hectares of native vegetation rehabilitation from the Queensland Department of Environment and Science — representing one of the largest ever areas of rehabilitation to be certified in a single application in the state.