The quarrying operation has been described as a serious impact on the environment because of its location and that’s a view shared by council and residents.

The plan outlined to the Mercury when first mooted is to literally take the top off a mountain beside the Great Western Highway at Wallerawang just a few hundred metres from expensive new homes and not far from the Wallerawang School.

It is in a direct line of sight along Barton Avenue towards the highway intersection and overlooks one of Greater Lithgow’s most important recreational showplaces, Lake Wallace.

Lithgow Council was opposed to the quarry and remains opposed.

But the NSW Government took the approval process out of council’s hands as a project of state significance and left the decision to State Planning who overruled council and community objections.

Public protest meetings were held but residents were not prepared to take on the costly and risky option of a challenge in the Land and Environment Court.

With the passing of the years and no evident movement on the site residents were lulled into a false hope that perhaps the quarry project had been abandoned.

But these hopes have now been dashed with evident large scale tree removals, signage and work on the access road.

Even worse, residents have now been informed that blasting on the site is set to begin this month, possibly within days.

Such is the proximity to the Great Western Highway that when the project was first mooted the developers floated a plan to close the highway at times when blasting was taking place.

This was predictably quickly rejected by the then RTA.

But that suggestion was enough to set alarms bells ringing in homes in the vicinity with residents concerned at possible damage to their property from the blasting.

The quarry company, Walker Quarries, aware of the prospect of future claims against it, notified property owners within a two kilometre radius that it wished to conduct inspections for any pre-existing damage before blasting begins.

This was, in fact, a condition of the development approval.

The developers have engaged Bathurst consultants Calare Civil Pty Ltd to carry out the inspections.

They advised the owners to reply promptly to inspection requests as ‘an initial blast is scheduled for mid August’.

Lithgow Council’s Environment and Planning manager Andrew Muir said council had not been advised of the imminent commencement of work.

He said council had opposed the development application but the process had been taken out of council’s hands.

“Council always regarded this as the wrong location for this type of thing and is still of that opinion,” he said yesterday.

A Forest Ridge Road resident who drew the Mercury’s attention to the situation this week said residents had hoped the quarry plan had gone away.

She said she and her neighbours were both disappointed and concerned at the anticipated impact on their peaceful rural residential lifestyle and property valuations.

“The fact that they’re inspecting our homes before blasting starts is an ominios admission,” she said.

The new mining operation is on the site of a small Hoskins quarry that operated out of sight in the 1920s.