Please join us on Saturday 29th July at 10.30am for an informative and timely talk with John Drinan.

John Drinan has lived most of his life in the Hunter Valley. Over that time, he has witnessed the devastating impact of the lucrative coal mining industry on the Valley’s landscapes, its native wildlife and ecosystems, and its people. As an agriculturalist and environmentalist who has worked as a farmer, researcher and educator, he has not only observed the effects of coal mining from many different perspectives but experienced them first-hand.

THE SACRIFICIAL VALLEY; coal’s legacy to the Hunter

The Sacrificial Valley is a record of John’s observations. It tries to understand how such damage was not only allowed, but facilitated, through often opaque cooperation between government and the mining industry. While he outlines the legacy mining has and will have on the Valley’s natural resources for generations to come, John Drinan utilises his lived experience in systems-based thinking and proposes how a repaired and reinvigorated Valley might be brought into being.

‘This book is dedicated to future generations who cannot know the Hunter Valley.  They will bear the costs of destruction of its natural environment by coal mining without the ephemeral benefits gained by their predecessors. I hope my book will help them to understand how and why this happened and, in this knowledge, recognise the need to confront social and environmental injustice when it occurs. The book is also dedicated with gratitude to the committed individuals and community groups who continue to advocate for the responsible stewardship of the Valley they care so deeply for.’  John Drinan