This was the scene confronting members of the visiting National Farmers Federation (NFF) mining and gas seam taskforce when they toured the Singleton district last week.

Taskforce chair and federation vice president, Duncan Fraser said the contrast in the landscape he saw while visiting Broke was very stark.

“We saw vineyards and olive groves surrounded by pristine country and then we were shown areas of mine subsidence and an open cut development,” he said.

“It has certainly been an eye opener, “” Mr Fraser said.

Coming from the pastoral districts of Lower Western NSW near Hay Mr Fraser’s tour took in most of the mining and agricultural areas of the Upper Hunter.

He was impressed by the Mt Arthur BHP Billiton mine and said it was an example of working co-operatively with all stake holders.

Unfortunately it appears not every mine site is running as well as Mt Arthur, he said.

One big problem for landholders is the uncertainty over their future and whether mine and gas seam development will impact so badly they can no longer continue to farm, Mr Fraser said.

Commenting on national issues Mr Fraser said his understanding was the Victorian and Western Australian governments had better procedures when it came to competing land use issues.

But in the Western Australia case they have far less land than NSW to protect from mine and gas seam development, he said.

“NFF would like to see a cessation of the headlong rush to develop new mines and gas wells. “We should stop the rush and continue to work within the existing footprint,” Mr Duncan said.

Food security was one of the taskforces other main concern and it an issue close to the heart of Fiona Simson, the NSW Farmers Association president who was also in Singleton last week.

Ms Simson who farms on the Liverpool Plains, the new battleground in the fight against unrestrained mining and gas seam development said the people from the Liverpool Plains do not want to see their district end up like the Hunter Valley.

“We don’t want to see development proponent driven as it has been for too long in the Hunter Valley, “ Ms Simson said.

“There must be no development on floodplains or near waterways and we have to look at the cumulative affects of all the mines in the area – not look at each development in isolation,” she said.