Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban join anti-coal protesters in NSW Southern Highlands
It appears Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have joined the anti-coal mining movement in the NSW Southern Highlands.
The celebrity couple have hung a protest placard on the gates of their $6.5 million Southern Highlands retreat that condemns coal seam gas mining.
The protest sign was bought from a Shoo Cockatoo stall set up at the Moss Vale Farmers Market last month.
A photo in News Ltd newspapers shows the sign on the gates at the front of the couple's property in Sutton Forest (pictured above).
The sign says "No coal or coal seam gas", similar to the one pictured, which is from elsewhere in the Southern Highlands.
Local landholders who have been campaigning against plans to expand coal and gas mining operations in the farmlet region for two years have been hoping Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban would join their battle.
Southern Highlands Coal Action Group convener Peter Martin has said that Kidman and Urban had spoken about their concerns regarding the proposed mining activity in the area at the stall last month.
"We sold them the sign for $20 when they visited the Moss Vale Farmers Market one Saturday morning on their last visit here," he says.
Kidman and Urban, who bought the 1878 Georgian mansion in Sutton Forest in 2008, have never spoken publicly about their concerns.
They now join radio broadcaster Alan Jones, who also has a farm in the highlands, who has lent his voice to the campaign.
The Southern Highlands Coal Action Group is headed by Peter Martin, a former chief executive for Rothschild Australia Asset Management.
More than 460 properties are located within the area covered by the coal-seam gas and coal mining leases.
Hume Coal, a joint venture between Korean steel-making giant POSCO and Cockatoo Coal, holds a 115-square-metre exploration permit initially granted in 1967 and began the first stage of the exploration process last May.
The NSW state government has imposed tighter controls on mining and coal-seam gas drilling on or near high-value agricultural land, with applications to mine having to first gain the approval of an independent expert panel.
But landholders say the rules do not go far enough and want mining to be banned altogether on high-value land.