If you live around Dora Creek, Cooranbong or Eraring, or work in the coal chain that
feeds the power station, this is the decision in front of the Independent Planning
Commission right now. Centennial Northern Coal Services, a subsidiary of Centennial Coal,
has applied to extend the run-of-mine coal stockpile at its Cooranbong Entry Site, where
coal from the underground Mandalong Mine arrives by drift conveyor. The planning
department’s
assessment
report says that on balance the Department considers the modification is in the
public interest and concludes that the consent may be modified subject to
conditions
.
The decision is the Commission’s, not the department’s. Its
case
page, read on 9 October, shows the referral received and submissions opened on 2
October, Submissions end 20/10/2026 at 11.59pm
, and no meetings scheduled. The
department’s referral
letter of 25 September says the Commission is the decision-maker because the applicant
had made reportable political donation disclosures at the time of application
,
which under the planning rules sends a case to the Commission. Approval by the Commission
would not be the last step: the assessment report says if approved, the modification
would be referred by the Department to the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment and
Water for determination under the EPBC Act
.
What would change on the site
The stockpile’s approved capacity would go from 100,000 to 400,000 tonnes, four times the size (our arithmetic). The assessment report’s comparison table (Table 2) lists what comes with it: about 2.93 hectares more cleared native vegetation, a stockpile up to 50 m RL high, a second dozer, access tracks, lighting towers, water sprays, fencing and drainage, four more full-time staff for 64 at the site, and about 12 months of construction. It also lists what does not change: up to 6 million tonnes a year of Mandalong coal through the site, operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and a project life to 31 December 2045.
Approved stockpile capacity at the Cooranbong Entry Site, now and as proposed
Bars to scale; the full width is 400,000 tonnes.
Centennial’s modification report (5 February 2025) puts the nearest privately owned homes, on Gradwells Road, about 330 m south of the project boundary, Dora Creek about 2 km south, and Eraring Power Station about 1 km east.
Why Centennial says it needs the space
The economic assessment in Centennial’s application explains that when longwall
equipment moves from one panel to the next, Mandalong stops producing and the stockpile
keeps coal moving in the meantime. Centennial’s report lists the benefits
it expects, including to Increase efficiency of underground mining operations at
Mandalong Mine through the availability of additional stockpile capacity at the CES, to
better accommodate approved longwall production
. That economic assessment,
prepared for Centennial by Gillespie Economics in January 2025, puts the supply argument
in terms of the power station:
Assist in the continuous, reliable supply of thermal coal to Eraring Power Station during periods of mining downtime (including during longwall changeouts or unplanned outages at Mandalong Mine). This in turn will increase the security of base load power generation in NSW.
Centennial’s own report is more measured about Eraring’s reliance on this
mine. It says Eraring Power Station partially sources its fuel from surrounding mining
operations, including Mandalong Mine (via CES).
The department, summing up, says the
larger stockpile would support the reliable supply of coal to both domestic and export
customers
.
Two routes out of the stockpile, and the one the economics assumes
Coal leaving the Cooranbong site goes one of two ways under the existing consent, as the assessment report (section 1.2) and the economic assessment (section 2.2) describe it: by overland conveyor to Eraring, or by truck on private haul roads to the Newstan Colliery surface site, and from there by rail.
Where Mandalong coal can go from the Cooranbong stockpile
Routes as the consent and the application describe them. The two air quality scenarios are the ones Centennial’s consultants modelled.
by drift conveyor
Route A: by overland conveyor, about 1 km
Air quality scenario 2, “Eraring Power Station option”
Route B: by truck on private haul roads
Air quality scenario 1, “Export option”; the basis of the economic assessment
The economic assessment chose one of those routes for its sums. It says that while the
larger stockpile would mean more coal available for sale to Eraring, or for
export
, this Economic Assessment is based on the simplifying assumption of all
sales exported, consistent with the assumptions in the environmental assessments,
particularly noise and dust emissions
. On that basis it finds net production
benefits of about $23 million to Australia and $18 million to NSW (net present
value at 7 per cent), figures the department repeats. Its analysis period is 16 years,
coinciding with the approved period of mining operations for Mandalong Mine under
SSD-5144 (i.e. 2025 to 2040)
.
The air quality work modelled both routes. The department’s summary (Table 14)
says no exceedances of the cumulative 24-hour particle criteria were predicted for the
Eraring option, and one day of exceedance was predicted for the export option, at four
nearby receptors. It attributes that day to background monitoring data affected by a
significant bushfire, and concludes it is considered highly unlikely that operation of the
modification would lead to exceedances of SSD-5145 air quality impact criteria at the
nearest sensitive receivers
.
Origin’s
20
January 2026 release says it will extend the operation of all four units of the
Eraring Power Station from 19 August 2027 to 30 April 2029
. Centennial lodged its
application in February 2025, nearly a year before that extension. Neither
Centennial’s modification report nor the department’s assessment report,
which we searched in full, mentions Eraring’s closure date.
The application against the dates the documents give
- 29 Sep 2015Consent SSD-5145 granted, allowing operations until 31 December 2045.
- 6 Feb 2025Centennial lodges Modification 4 (report dated 5 February).
- 25 Feb to 25 Mar 2025Public exhibition: 78 public submissions, 77 in support.
- 20 Jan 2026Origin extends Eraring’s operation from 19 August 2027 to 30 April 2029.
- 3 Mar 2026Origin announces an agreement with Centennial Coal for supply from the Myuna Colliery to Eraring until December 2028.
- 25 Sep 2026The department refers the application to the Commission.
- 20 Oct 2026Commission submissions close, 11.59pm.
- After thatCommission decision; if approved, the Commonwealth environment minister decides under the EPBC Act.
- 30 Apr 2029Eraring closes, on Origin’s date.
- 2040End of Mandalong’s approved mining period, per the economic assessment.
- 31 Dec 2045End of the Northern Coal Logistics consent.
What the department weighed against it
The department named biodiversity and noise as the key issues. The extension would clear 2.93 hectares of native vegetation, after a redesign that the report says avoided direct clearing of 9.5 hectares. It may significantly affect two plants listed under the Commonwealth’s environment law, the Black-eyed Susan and the Small-flower Grevillea, to be offset with biodiversity credits. Construction noise is predicted to exceed the criteria at three homes. Once operating, marginal exceedances are predicted at two homes on nights with temperature inversions, and the department notes both have a negotiated noise agreement with Centennial.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Native vegetation clearedAfter avoiding direct clearing of 9.5 ha in the redesign | 2.93 ha |
| Homes over construction noise criteriaPredicted, during about 12 months of construction | 3 |
| Homes over operating noise criteriaMarginal, on nights with temperature inversions; both have noise agreements | 2 |
| Greenhouse gas, constructionTonnes of CO2-e, once | 1,569 t |
| Greenhouse gas, operationTonnes of CO2-e a year | 2,196 t |
| Net production benefitTo Australia / to NSW, net present value at 7 per cent | $23m / $18m |
The recommended conditions require a Biodiversity Management Plan, approved by the Planning Secretary, before any native vegetation is cleared under the modification, and set new operational noise criteria for privately owned homes that do not apply where Centennial has an agreement with the owner.
Who has had a say so far
The department exhibited the application for 29 days in February and March 2025. The assessment report counts 78 public submissions, a comment from Lake Macquarie City Council and advice from ten government agencies.
Public submissions to the department, 2025 exhibition
Bars to scale; the full width is all 78 public submissions.
The supporters raised jobs, the report says, particularly the retention of over 400
jobs at Mandalong Mine
, and the project’s contribution to energy security. The
single objection, in the department’s summary, raised the purpose and scale of the
extension, suggesting that the increased capacity is excessive, and intended solely for
export, with no benefit to the domestic market
. The council raised the loss of native
vegetation and hollow-bearing trees, and maintained that a more detailed analysis of
alternatives would be desirable. Those submissions went to the department
in 2025; the Commission’s submission period is a separate one.
How we read the documents
We read the department’s 95-page assessment report and its referral letter, the recommended instrument of modification, and the Commission’s case page on 9 October 2026, and Centennial’s 51-page modification report and the 21-page economic assessment (Appendix G) from the NSW Planning Portal. The statement that neither main report mentions Eraring’s closure date comes from a full-text search of both for “2029”, “2027”, “closure” and “retire”; we did not search the other application appendices. Both reports state the modification’s Scope 1 emissions as approximately 1.2 per cent of the site’s 141,306 tonnes a year; 2,196 divided by 141,306 is 1.6 per cent, so the 2,196 tonne figure may include more than Scope 1, and neither report splits it; we give the tonnes and not the percentage. The economic assessment gives royalties of about $16 million and the department about $13 million; we use the net production benefits, on which they agree. “At least 11 of its 16 years” below counts 2030 to 2040. We did not contact Centennial, Origin, the department or the Commission.
Our read
This section is opinion, based on the facts and documents above.
The stockpile is argued on Eraring and costed on exports, and on Origin’s date only one of those lasts. The economic case covers 2025 to 2040; at least 11 of its 16 years fall after Eraring’s April 2029 closure. The economist was open about the export assumption and gave a reasonable reason for it, and a buffer for longwall changeouts is useful whoever buys the coal. None of that is a problem with the proposal. It does mean the energy-security line in the application has an end date that neither main report states, and that the export case is not just the conservative one for modelling: on the documents, it is the one that describes most of this stockpile’s working life.
That is the version worth judging it on. For people near the site, the export route is the one with trucks on the haul road and the one day of modelled exceedance that the department puts down to a significant bushfire affecting the background data. The Commission can weigh the proposal as what it would mostly be after 2029, and submissions to it can ask it to.
What to watch next
The Commission’s submissions close at 11.59pm on Tuesday 20 October, through the submission form on its case page. As at 9 October no public meeting was scheduled. After the Commission decides, an approval still needs the Commonwealth environment minister’s decision under the EPBC Act. We will report the Commission’s decision when it publishes it.