'Big disruption': school parents digging in to fight quarry project

Parents from a Lake Macquarie primary school are banding together to fight the rehabilitation of a quarry, which they believe will negatively impact their children.

Lake Macquarie City Council is pushing ahead with plans to rehabilitate the former Bolton quarry at Fennell Bay for use in diverting reclaimed recyclable materials from landfill.

The quarry neighbours Fennell Bay Public School and backs onto the northern boundary of its playground.

The council said the 15-to-20-year project would divert 30,000 tonnes annually of excavated natural material such as sandstone, shale, clay and soil and virgin excavated natural material such as clay, gravel, sand, soil or rock fines from being disposed of at the Awaba Waste Management Facility (AWMF).

Processing these materials at the AWMF is estimated to cost $11 million.

A key part of the project is building a driveway off Bay Road and through bushland that neighbours the school to access the quarry until an upgraded entrance can be built off Main Road.

Fennell Bay Public School parent Louis Jordaan said concerned members of the school community had held a meeting about the council's project and had subsequently launched a petition.

"We're mostly concerned about traffic with the entrance to the site being so close to the school," Mr Jordaan said.

"We've got kids walking up and down that footpath to access the school in the mornings, and in the afternoons they walk past there again."

The rehabilitation works will also result in timed no-parking restrictions from 7am to 4pm Monday to Friday fronting 19 to 25 Bay Road and no-stopping restrictions adjacent to the quarry access on the northern side of Bay Road.

A spokesperson for the council said, "Traffic associated with the project is expected to average about 10 trucks per day, with a maximum of 20 trucks per day during peak periods.

"Vehicle movements will be managed to minimise impacts during school zone operating hours where possible.

"Once the Main Road/Toronto Road access upgrade is completed in mid-2027 (following approval from Transport for NSW), most vehicle movements to the quarry will occur via that access point."

Mr Jordaan said parents were also concerned about the loss of bushland which neighbours the school.

Since 2023, Fennell Bay Public has hosted "bush school" opportunities for students to engage in nature-based learning. Earlier this year the school launched its Wirray Wanai pilot, named after "bush children" in the Awabakal language.

A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Education confirmed the school would need to find a new bush location to continue the program.

Mr Jordaan said the "bush school" was loved by parents and students but was under threat due to the quarry rehabilitation.

"A lot of people are interested, and the kids really love it, and pretty much every class gets to go into the bush," he said.

Parents are also worried about noise and dust pollution for students.

In 2021 the school was placed on the NSW Environmental Protection Authority's contaminated sites list after lead-contaminated soil - also known as 'black slag' - was discovered across 6800 square metres of the school's playing field.

Remediation works were completed and the playing field was fully reopened a year ago.

"They lost a lot of their land and they found all sorts of stuff there like asbestos and slag," Mr Jordaan said of the remediation period.

"It was a big disruption to the kids. They are concerned now because it [the quarry rehabilitation] is going to be a potential disruption with the noise and dust."

The council's spokesperson said minimising disruption to students and residents was a high priority during the quarry rehabilitation.

"We've undertaken a review of environmental factors as part of preparing for this project, including a detailed noise and vibration impact assessment," they said.

"It identified a range of mitigation measures, including hours of operation, equipment used and traffic management.

"A Construction Environmental Management Plan will implement site-specific environmental safeguards and address erosion and sediment control, air quality (including dust prevention), noise and vibration, and traffic management."

The Bolton quarry was established in the early 1940s for road-making materials and operated until the 1990s.

The quarry will be "cleaned of any material illegally dumped on the site since it ceased operating" in the early stages of rehabilitation.

The council is also undertaking an underground assessment to locate any old mine shafts or workings.