MR PEABODY IS STILL DESTROYING COMMUNITIES & THE ENVIRONMENT - IN AUSTRALIA TOO
Though the late-and-great John Prine sang in 1971 about the Kentucky town of Paradise, lost by strip mining to Mr Peabody’s infamous coal train, history just keeps repeating itself - and at present, Down Under in NSW :
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/02/im-not-selling-what-happens-when-an-australian-town-is-consumed-by-a-us-coalminer
(may need to cut-and-paste - news links are being tampered with these days ...)
“what happens when an Australian town is consumed by a US coalminer” (the current story of the town of Wollar) 02 May 2021


KILLER BLACK COAL MINES

Bob Campbell

Once I lived in Paradise, now I live in hell
Peabody Coal Mines are chewing my hill
Poor old Ulan’s rolling down a hole
Going down for profit and Killer Black Coal.

   Killer Black Coal Mines growing everywhere
   Killer Black Coal Mines does anybody care
   Killer Black Coal Trains coming round the bend
   Killer Black Coal Trains ripping out again.

Goodbye wombat, grey kangaroo, red-necked wallaby, emu too
Wedge-tailed eagles flapping in despair, gotta eat somewhere, doesn’t know where.

Singleton and Muswellbrook, the kids are dying young
You can taste the lead and sulphur everytime you move your tongue.
Headlights, crash sites, the miners own the road
Big trucks rolling, lungs on overload.

   Shit creek, Cripple Creek, spoil? everywhere
   The mountains are a moonscape, valleys dead and bare.
   Shit creek, Cripple Creek - does anybody care
   That the mountains are a moonscape, valleys dead and bare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNFWT-BGJLw sung here by Bob Campbell, with additional commentary by members of the affected coal communities in the historic Gulgong vicinity.

See more about Bob’s history and longtime musical endeavours AND the stories behind this song, at http://www.fiddlerbob.com/killer-black-coal.html    :

"Killer Black Coal Mines was written by Bob Campbell [c.2011] a local musician of Ulan near Mudgee NSW Australia. Bob's song portrays what is happening in small communities in many parts of the world as the coal mining companies rip apart beautiful valleys and caring communities. Families dreams shattered as land is grabbed from under them. Not everyone though, only some properties are picked out and made large offers. With no options, those left behind with worthless land must also suffer the indignities of noise, air and aesthetic pollution.
In the Ulan, Moolarben, Wilpinjong and Bylong Valleys they all adjoin national parks, so there is obviously many plants and animals threatened and killed. Road kill is astounding when you have this much industry adjoining national parks.”

https://changingtimes.media/2017/09/19/coal-mining-devastates-villages-and-cultural-heritage-in-australias-hunter-valley/
“Coal mining devastates villages and cultural heritage in Australia’s Hunter Valley” 19 Sept 2017

And as in America, so follows Australia :
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/hunter-coal-miners-don-t-have-enough-funds-for-land-rehabilitation-20210505-p57p4b.html
06 May 2021 (may have to cut-and-paste that one; MSM link keeps reverting to a 2007 off-topic article. Hmmmm .....) : “HUNTER COAL MINERS DON'T HAVE ENOUGH FUNDS FOR LAND REHABILITATION”

well well, what a surprise   “Draglines at my heart” indeed ..... :(

R-J