ONE week after learning a 10 million tonne state significant sand mine could soon be operating in their backyard, Bobs Farm residents have banded together to fight the proposal.
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A group of residents were to gather at Bobs Farm hall on Tuesday night to organise a committee which would oppose the proposed Bobs Farm Sand Mine.
It came after about 70 residents attended a consultative meeting on November 25 where many only first learned of the mine and the implications it would have on the suburb.
"A lot of people that went didn't know what was going on," Bobs Farm resident and mother Kristy Arnall said.
Developers of the sand mine are seeking state government approval to extract about 750,000 tonnes of sand a year from a 40-plus hectare lot of land at 3631 Nelson Bay Road.
It is hoped the mine would have a 15-year life span, seeing more than 10 million tonnes of sand extracted from the site, which was once a fig farm.
Raymond Terrace consultant firm Tattersall Lander, who has handled the development from "day one" for owner Ammos Resource Limited, a Sydney-based company, led the November 25 meeting.
Tattersall Lander company director Bob Lander said the initial reception at the meeting was hostile before becoming "respectful" when he explained where the proposal was at and where residents could find information.
"We're at the beginning of the process," Mr Lander said.
"A lot of people at the meeting thought they had been told too late, but that's not true.
"This was the first meeting in the consultative process."
Residents at the meeting raised concerns about the amount of trucks which would use Nelson Bay Road and Marsh Road six days a week to access and exit the mine.
About 200 trucks would travel on the roads in those six days, having to pass Bobs Farm Public School.
Mr Lander said many concerns residents raised at the meeting would be addressed in the environmental impact statement the firm was currently working on, which would be submitted to the NSW Government's department of Planning and Environment next year.
The Say No To Sand Mining in Bobs Farm Facebook page, set up on November 27, has more than 580 likes.