In 2019, our complaint to Subsidence Authority NSW (SA NSW) was treated as a “Safety & Remediation Report” where they created an internal document saying that there were no mines beneath our properties, no subsidence was seen or reported, and that we had said that the property had water problems since being built. All of this information is false.

Because SA NSW reported the problem as no mines beneath us, for the next 5 years we have been lobbying the Legacy Mines department to review and solve the problem in Mayfield. The theory told to us was that mining finished under Maitland Road, and this mine water was “seeping” into our properties.

In 2020, John Barilaro MP the Minister responsible for Legacy mines, personally visited the sites and immediately commissioned a report into the situation in Mayfield. It found that the entire district is unstable due to historic mining. When Legacy Mines staff requested the mine maps beneath our building, SA NSW purposely withheld mine maps. In doing so, they withheld the fact that mines under Clara and related streets were interconnected with mines under Maitland road, which were then interconnected with mines under our building.

For the next few years, various government ministers used the information from SA NSW that there were no mines under our building, and were not legally responsible for the water coming from government controlled assets (such as the abandoned mines under Maitland Road) into our properties.

After spending 16 months lobbying the NSW Resource Regulator & SA NSW to receive geo-referenced mine maps, we received these maps in August 2024. These maps were approved to be released to us in February, but SA NSW purposely delayed the release. These mine maps show direct correlation between the subsidence and water damage on our properties, as well as to our neighbour properties.

In October 2024, we showed the new evidence to Tim Crakanthorp MP, NSW member for Newcastle – exposing the situation that for many years, SA NSW has been withholding information and deceiving him and other ministers of the true situation in Mayfield. As of January 2025, he is still waiting for the real mine maps to be disclosed to him.

Shortly after our meeting with Tim Crakanthorp, we were invited to a meeting by SA NSW to discuss the ongoing investigation. 16 months after lodging our claims, it’s the first time we have a face to face meeting in their office where they still maintain that they don’t know if mining occurred under our properties, even though they provided the geo-referenced mine maps in August 2024. A site inspection is still not handled, instead they want to redo work completed by the Legacy Mines department in 2020, and instead of handling analysis/inspection of our properties, decide to dig 2 boreholes on the footpath.

The NSW government is still using the 2019 false SA NSW document that is saying that there are no mines beneath our properties. With this, the government through their Valuer General’s office is increasing the land value yearly, and rejecting our evidence. Now, they are chasing us legally for unpaid tax/rates on properties that are not fit for use - 38 Maitland Road has been derelict and unusable for over a decade as acknowledged by their valuer, Knight Frank.

Had we have known that there were mine workings beneath our property, we would have completely handled the situation differently. Because of mistakes/errors from the government at the beginning, and then following the coverup, the NSW Government is permanently destroyed our businesses and buildings, and using false information to gain financial advantage through their various agencies.