Peabody Energy is proposing yet another major expansion of the Wilpinjong mine, adding two additional new disturbance areas known as Pit 9 and Pit 10. This mine expansion has been titled Wilpinjong Continuation Project and is now lodged with Planning as a new State Significant Development (SSD) project.

The scoping report documents are available on the Planning portal here.

This proposed ongoing expansion of opencut coal mining that will surround Wollar village is unacceptable with increased cumulative environmental impacts up to December 2038.

The project is proposing to extract an additional 70 MT coal and disturb an additional 550 ha of land including prime agricultural land. Cumulative impacts will include further loss of flows to Wollar Creek, more destruction of Aboriginal cultural heritage, more noise, dust, blasting and loss of important remnant threatened species habitat.

This new SSD project will require a more rigorous Environmental Impact Assessment and be determined by an Independent Planning Commission.

Peabody's proposed Wilpinjong Continuation Project — extracting an additional 70 million tonnes of coal and disturbing 810 hectares of land east of Wollar Village through to 2038 — has been referred to the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act).

MDEG's submission to the EPBC referral (closed 24 September 2026) identified critical assessment gaps and inadequate mitigation measures. The project threatens:

• Threatened species habitat: Regent Honeyeater, Koala, and Large-eared Pied Bat potentially using remnant bushland marked for clearing
• Water security: Significant cumulative impacts on the Wollar Creek catchment—which flows into Goulburn River National Park—affecting downstream water users and groundwater
• Aboriginal cultural heritage: Private land owned by Mudgee Local Aboriginal Lands Council within the project boundary; Native Title claim across the project area not adequately referenced
• Community amenity: Wollar Village surrounded by 24-hour operational noise, air quality degradation, blasting, and increased traffic
• Prime agricultural land: Destruction of Biophysical Strategic Agricultural Land (BSAL) highly connected to groundwater—a landscape resource that cannot be recovered once mined

The referral documents included limited assessment information with no identified mitigation measures for critically endangered species and ecological communities.