All risk, no reward for outback farmers

 In Short

• The Financial Gap: NSW Farmers are calling for compensation to be raised to $1,500 per claim, arguing the current $50–$200 rates are a "pittance" that fails to cover real business losses.
• Operational Chaos: Beyond the dig site, farmers report losing access to land within a 1km radius due to livestock stress, biosecurity risks, and disrupted water access.
• The Ultimatum: If fair compensation isn't met, the NSW Farmers Association suggests opal mining should be restricted strictly to public land reserves.

Shortchanged farmers in the state’s northwest are desperately calling on government to deliver fairer compensation for small-scale title mining claims.

NSW Farmers Acting CEO Mike Guerin said the proposed compensation amounts for opal mining claims fell well short of the real and ongoing losses faced by farm businesses hosting mining activity and called on the NSW Government to urgently rework the proposed compensation framework to ensure farmers were treated fairly and not forced to absorb the full financial and operational impacts of mining activity on their land.

Under the current proposal, landholders would receive as little as $50 per claim in White Cliffs and $200 near Lightning Ridge, amounts NSW Farmers said were nowhere near the actual losses borne by farm businesses.

“A lot of people don’t realise that an opal miner can turn up with a piece of paper and completely disrupt your business or your backyard,” Mr Guerin said.

“Most of us only own the top few metres of dirt, and the government can sell the rights underneath the surface to miners who then have the right to turn up, dig holes, disrupt your operation and create a huge mess.

“This is a massive impost on farmers who are doing their best to produce healthy plants and animals in a pretty harsh environment, and this pittance proposed by government as ‘compensation’ is little more than an insult.”

NSW Farmers did not support the outcome of an independent review that recommended tiny compensation amounts, nor did it support the government’s response which failed to reflect the full extent of impacts experienced by affected landholders.

Mr Guerin said an evidence‑based approach was needed to properly account for the costs associated with a small-scale title claim on their farm, to ensure farmers were not left carrying an unfair burden.

“Real‑world losses extend well beyond the immediate surface disturbance and include increased biosecurity risks and ongoing management costs, defensive spending, livestock disruption, and significant impacts on labour and farm management,” Mr Guerin said.

“Landholders have told us they can lose us up to a one kilometre radius around the actual title site as the livestock behaviour is disturbed on the adjacent land, which can also impact animal health, and access to watering points.

“We've calculated a compensation rate of approximately $1500 per claim more accurately reflects the true costs and losses incurred by farm businesses hosting opal mining activity.

“If the government is unwilling to provide fair and equitable compensation, in lieu of compensable loss, then opal mining should be restricted to public land only, within designated reserves established specifically for that purpose.

“Even the Independent Reviewer identified that less than 1.5 per cent of the available area is being used for opal mining, indicating there is a huge area of land potentially available for the continuation of activity within existing areas. This is contrary to the claim that there is a lack of land available and NSW Farmers does not support expansion of the current footprint to Opal Prospecting Area 4.“