Subsidence Advisory NSW has a history of deceptive conduct.
During a 2015 Newcastle Herald investigation of a couple experiencing mine subsidence in Gillieston Heights, it was shown that Subsidence Advisory hid and withheld crucial documents that would have helped the home owners tremendously. The news article read;
“The documents, brought to light last year as part of court proceedings, were not given to Andrew and Kylie Neale in their eight-year mine subsidence compensation battle despite a subpoena and several freedom of information requests.”
The property owners allege Mine Subsidence Board (Subsidence Advisory NSW) was involved in deceptive conduct;
‘‘We requested all information relevant to the area and they never produced these documents that could have ended this years ago. They are meant to help people, not put them through hell.’’
Whilst the NSW Government representative said;
‘‘Searching this body of information can be very demanding on the time allocated to resources of the board if the search is broadly defined and covers an unbounded period of time’’ .
A decade later, Subsidence Advisory NSW has maintained their corrupt deceptive conduct in dealing with our claims, but also, during the current court process.
During the current Land & Environment Court case, Subsidence Advisory has delayed, withheld, and hidden documents, resulting in our lawyers to ask separately for document discovery requests. Even then, we receive empty folders or crucial documents missing from the files. The deceptive conduct has been so bad, that our lawyers have lodged 3 complaints under the Model Litigant Policy to the NSW Government, all 3 have been ignored.
Beside the court hearing, Subsidence Advisory NSW has been involved in deceptive conduct by hiding, deceiving and making documents unavailable to ourselves and government agencies. Freedom of Information GIPA requests were deemed “unreasonable and substantial diversion of the agency’s resources”. We were also informed that the information requested was not computerized (whilst we knew this was false, SANSW having provided similar documents to other agencies).
When we asked via the GIPA Freedom of Information process;
“the claim findings for properties affected by mine water flooding in Ashtonfield & Gillieston Heights including any settlement payments made”
We were told by the FOI/GIPA officer;
“SANSW have thanked you for providing the further information/details (‘Document 116’), however it still does not provide sufficient detail to allow for appropriate/relevant searches to be undertaken.”
After numerous phone calls and emails with the FOI officer we were told unless we could give the Lot numbers of the properties then it was not possible due to the amount of information they need to research. Even though we had specifically given dates, public servant names and and information on when SANSW had discussed the Ashtonfield property internally, SANSW said they could not help without the property lot number.
The problem here is, SANSW purchased the Ashtonfield property in 2016, is only a handful of properties owned by the NSW Government and is generally considered a basket case. The property is often referred to in internal NSW discussions amongst SANSW, Legacy Mines and other government agencies – it is the only property owned by the NSW Government in Ashtonfield. This property is permanently flooded and uninhabitable – no spin can explain the level of deceit and corruption here. Oh, and the Subsidence Advisory claims case manager in Ashtonfield, is the same claims case manager in Mayfield for our properties.
Subsidence Advisory NSW has broken a number of laws under the GIPA Act, Crimes Act, State Records Act and Public Sector Codes of Conduct.
The level of corruption is overwhelming.
Subsidence Authority NSW owned Property in Ashtonfield
The above property was purchased in 2016, and is permanently flooded by mine water for a decade. Subsidence Advisory NSW continues to maintain the front of the property to “hide” the problems inside. Photo taken in 2026.