The project area accommodates several significant types of land use ranging from light industrial, commercial and housing developments to small townships and small acre farms. Major transport routes traverse the area including the F3 Freeway and the Main Northern Railway Line. The western area features heavily timbered hills, most of which are included in State Forests.

The Shire supports three main industrial/commercial centres. Enterprise Drive (Tuggerah Business Park) straddles Ourimbah Creek and links the southern lake areas with Tuggerah. The Tuggerah Strait commercial area is also close to Tuggerah, whilst the North Wyong Industrial Area links Watanobbi to the newly developing Warnervale area. Council is focussing on expanding industrial and commercial development in the Warnervale/Sparks Road area. The Tooheys Road area is currently designated for large industrial enterprises and has been zoned accordingly. The Tooheys Road site for the project which will house the main surface infrastructure is located within the Bushells Ridge Precinct.

Available natural resources have lead to the establishment of a number of extractive industries in the region with coal mining being a major source of local income. There are currently six underground mines located in the region. A major clay quarry and tile manufacturing plant are located immediately adjacent to the Tooheys Road surface facilities site.

The proposed mining area is remote from major urban areas. The northeasternmost part of the mining area lies beneath the western side of the Hue Hue subdivision which is within the declared Hue Hue Mine Subsidence District. Scattered rural dwellings follow the river flats and the small localities of Yarramalong and Dooralong are near the head of their respective valleys. State Forests dominate this area known as ‘the valleys’. Olney State Forest continues north into the forested Watagan Mountains, which stretch towards Wollombi and the Hunter region. To the west of the valleys past the Wyong State Forest, the steep upland country continues through Dharug and Wollemi National Parks to merge with the Great Dividing Range. Ourimbah State Forest is south of the Yarramalong Valley; this area merges with the more gentle slopes of the Somersby Plateau.

The dominant agricultural activity in the valleys is intensive grazing, although turf farming is also common in the more fertile areas near the Wyong River and Jilliby Jilliby Creek. Over the last 20 years large holdings have been fragmented and converted to hobby farms, rural weekend retreats, market gardens, nurseries and horse studs. As a result the character is rural rather than agricultural.

The towns of Tuggerah and Wyong lie outside the proposed lease area, east of the Main Northern Railway. Tuggerah includes several large, regional, commercial centres including the Westfield Tuggerah Shoppingtown and the Tuggerah SuperCenta.

The project will have no direct impact on residential or industrial land in the main Wyong centre. The project will have significant direct and indirect benefits to the local economy from project spending, local employment and flow-on effects.

The surface facilities site at Tooheys Road is well located and is effectively isolated from existing settlement. The recent settlements to the east (Blue Haven, Charmhaven) are located several kilometres away from the main pit top facilities. Existing intervening land uses between these settlements and the pit top site include:

• Existing quarry and tile manufacturing facility
• Sewage treatment plant
• Main Northern Rail Line
• Motorway Link Road

To the west of the pit top site is the F3 Freeway and the Buttonderry Waste Facility. Immediately south of this waste facility is the proposed Buttonderry surface facilities for mine ventilation and, administration offices and employee access to the underground mine workings.