Coal mining company seemingly snares historic Mereworth, Berrima farm

The historic Berrima farm, Mereworth has been sold by the Oxley family, best known as being decendents of the Bushells tea founders.

Locals dread it has been bought by underground coal mining interests in the sensitive Southern Highlands farming country.

Land title searches suggest it may have been bought by interests associated with the encroaching coal mining industry, given the purchasing shelf company is directed by Guy Humble, a Brisbane based lawyer with a strong background in the mining and resources industry.

The purchasing company, set up mid-year, goes by the guiseful name, S.F. Pastoral Holdings.

Mereworth was listed with $12 million-plus hopes in 2011, with its mid-2014 sale at $11.1 million only now beginning to be formally registered.

The reputed purchase would allow the purchaser to undertake mining related activities, in this case the mooted removal of any coal via conveyor belt to nearby possibly available train tracks.

Locals fear the purchaser is the Korean mining company, POSCO who have the coal exploration lease. Local Southern Highlands resident, the 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones says POSCO ought be regarded as "vandals". 

The 500 hectare Mereworth property ranks among the most intact southern highlands farms, but having been split by the highway there was a restraint on the level of private purchasing interest.

Property Observer is aware the same shelf company, S.F. Pastoral Pty Ltd has also purchased two other nearby Berrima properties on the eastern side of the highway, just outside of Berrima last month.

It paid $2,582,000 at the 3651 Old Hume Highway property, Stonington.

It paid $1,859,000 for the holding at 3711 Old Hume Highway.

In June at $12.6 million, Cavalaire Rural Pty Ltd directed by the Korean-born Joon Byun on behalf of POSCO, purchased Evandale, a 800 hectare property owned by the Reid family which abuts the Medway Reservoir that services 8200 residents of Berrima, Bowral and Mittagong and is the emergency water supply for the region. The two important feeder streams for the Reservoir, Medway Rivulet and Wells Creek pass through Evandale. Locals say any coal mining in the district could have significant consequences for this water resource.

Solicitor Guy Humble’s known clients include Macarthur Coal, Peabody, QGC, CS Energy and AMCI.

He co-directs the purchasing company, S.F. Rural Holdings with another McCullough Robertson Brisbane lawyer, Peter Stewart.

The Korean steel-maker POSCO was formerly partners with Cockatoo Coal, which sold out of the controversial mining venture, known as Hume Coal in May last year.

The syndicate assumed the exploratory rights from Angelo Coal (Sutton Forrest) Pty Ltd, which had held the mostly dormant lease since 1985.

The coal exploration lease, allowing it to carry out exploration and possibly install a mine heads on properties, runs from the village of Exeter through Sutton Forest to the Belanglo State Forest.

The mining syndicate hit the headlines in 2011 when they emerged as the $8 million buyer of a 425 hectare beef cattle farm, Wongonbra, virtually on the doorstep of actor Nicole Kidman and singer Keith Urban’s peaceful Sutton Forest retreat, Bunya Hill.

POSCO have supported more than 40 local charities and sporting clubs over the past three years to seek support among local landowners who have been been mostly hostile to their exploration attempts.

After almost 100 years of ownership by the Cowley family, Mereworth was bought by the pioneering tea-merchant family in 1963, nine years after the death at Carthona, Darling Point of Philip Howard Bushell - whose estate was valued for probate at £666,695 - and four years after the death of his widow, Myrtle, who left an estate of £2,558,921.

A vintage tea mixer (photographed above) was among the items sold at its recent Lawsons contents' sale. The antique sale buyers at Mereworth were greeted by greyhounds statues on stands at the front door. Out went the ornate chandeliers, clocks, tapestries and antique rugs, bronzes and garden architecture, important 19th century French Boulle furniture, early portraits dating to the 17th century, antique prints and maps, and French inspired outdoor furniture.
 

Mereworth's occupancy dates back to John Atkinson's 1820 settlement. His brother, James, owned the trophy home, Oldbury at Sutton Forest.

The nine-bedroom 1964 sandstone house was designed by architect John Amory, with a French provincial feel.

Its formal lounge room comes with a baronial fireplace and raked ceilings.

Shuttered windows and french doors frame the views of the mature garden, once described by Elwyn Swane as one of the finest by landscaper Paul Sorenson.

The property, with two creeks, 12 dams and seven bores, suits grazing cattle, sheep and horses.

It was described as the best property listing since Reg and Joy Grundy paid $15 million for Comfort Hill, the 200-hectare Sutton Forest property from adman-turned-farmer Michael Ball and his wife, Daria, in 2007.

In late 2011 the secretive tactics by the POSCO Korean coal mining enterprise shocked Michael Ball, when he sold another Southern Highlands property to who he thought was an agricultural company.

Michael Ball found out the farm sold to shelf company Aurelius Rural Pty Ltd, which actually wanted to establish itself on the beef cattle farm for mining purposes. Wongonbra was marketed by estate agents as arguably the best available large rural landholding in the Southern Highlands.

"Well, clearly it's deceitful because they pretended all the way through the negotiations that they were solely interested in farming – cattle farming," Ball said after its sale.

In late 2011, Quentin Dempster on the ABC 7.30 Report noted the secretive practice had made the small community “more determined than ever to stop mining”.

The highlands coal sits underneath a water aquifer.

"No one has a clue of the geology of aquifers,” Ball, in 2011, told The Australian.

“Once fractured, there's no possibility for them to be fixed. You can't mine without fracturing the aquifer."

Peter Martin, the convener of the Southern Highland Coal Action Group, has previously suggested governments were allowing miners to come into some of the best parts of Australia and “ruin them".

The known purchases of the five properties total more than $35 million.

The Southern Highlands has always been closely associated with the English landscape. It was Governor Lachlan Macquarie who noted in 1820 that the district was particularly beautiful and rich, "resembling a fine extensive pleasure ground in England".

Elsewhere POSCO is in the Roy Hill joint venture between Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting and Japanese company Marubeni and Taiwan's China Steel Corporation.

They are also partners with Glencore Xstrata and Marubeni in the Ravensworth underground mine in the Hunter Valley which is in the process of being mothballed.