The Tom Farrell Institute at the University of Newcastle and the Hunter Environmental Institute are joining forces on 12 April to run the 8th Annual Best Practice Ecological Rehabilitation of Mined Lands Conference at Wests, New Lambton. This is the first time this important conference has been held in Newcastle, previous conferences having been held in Singleton and Muswellbrook.

 

This annual Conference is a significant event on the Hunter Region calendar. It provides an important avenue to promote the use of best-practice approaches in the management of rehabilitation of mined lands, and also brings together leading professionals, stakeholders and companies within the mine rehabilitation sector.

 

International speakers will include:

• Soils and restoration ecology expert Professor Eduardo Arellano from Chile will present the adaptation of the Forestry Reclamation Approach (a method developed in the Appalachian Region (USA) for reclaiming coal-mined land to forest) to local coal mining at Riesco Island in southern Chilean Patagonia;

• Forestry expert Professor Yudi Arifin from Indonesian Borneo will describe his work on the successful formation of secondary forests on post-mining land; and

• Geomorphic mine rehabilitation expert Professor José Martín Duque from Spain talking on ‘natural’ drainage basins as fundamental units for rehabilitation planning and will walk-though a typical geomorphic mine rehabilitation project.

 

The business of the Conference will be supported by a trade display, and a large poster display. Posters from research students will be vying for a $1,000 prize. HEI is organising separately ticketed Conference Dinner and the Conference Mines Tour. After the Conference there will be separately ticketed workshops on Friday 13 April.