Aboriginal activist Scott Franks said calls to three Aboriginal organisations followed an August 2 Argus report that said 18 Ashton open-cut workers were made redundant and the remaining 90 workers also faced the chop because the state government had not approved expansion plans.

In the Argus report an advocate with the Indigenous Justice Advocacy Network, Al Oshlack, said Ashton officials were using workers as pawns in a bullyboy move to expand the open-cut.

The justice network represents the Plains Clans of the Wonnarua People in NSW Land and Environment Court action against Ashton.

“It’s appalling that people resort to threats and abuse and its worse to see Aboriginals being targeted who have absolutely nothing to do with the situation,” Mr Franks said.

“The Plains Clans of the Wonnarua People take total responsibility for our court action to protect sites of major cultural significance in and around Glennies Creek and Bowmans Creek at Camberwell.

“And we are willing to meet with Ashton’s mining union delegates to explain our position.”

A media spokesman for Ashton Coal, Chris Ford, declined to comment.

United Mine Workers Union representative Shane Thompson said he knew nothing about the alleged abusive phone calls.

The court case involving Aboriginal sites was a matter between the company and the Wonnarua people and the workers preferred to leave it at that, he said.

Ashton’s chief operating officer Peter Barton blamed job losses on the state government’s failure to approve expansion.

The company stopped full-scale open-cut operations late last year and workers have since been retained on a limited production basis, he said.

Mr Franks said his group strongly opposed Ashton’s open-cut and underground expansion plans on the grounds they would destroy numerous cultural sites and thus called on the court to impose 500 metre wide buffer zones around Glennies Creek and Bowmans Creek.