Their uncertainty is due to a development application lodged by Orica Mining Services which proposes a storage facility for ammonium nitrate on land not far from their home.

For the past 16 years, the Carters have been building their lives and their business on the 42 hectares of land they own on Rosemount Road.

That road is the same one that Orica have earmarked for up to 40 heavy-vehicle trucks trips a week if their application is given the tick of approval by Muswellbrook Shire Council.

Orica plan to use the old Rosemount Winery on Rosemount Road, about five kilometres from the Carters’ land, into a storage facility.

Mr Carter and his wife are the owners of Carellen Holiday Cottages and live on site.

They hold a number of concerns about the development including truck movement and future plans if chemicals manufacturer is established at the winery site.

“I can only comment on what’s in the submission,” Mr Carter said.

“But there are already plans for an emulsion plant.

“That is a concern because we don’t know how big it could all become.”

Mr Carter is also worried that the heavy-vehicle movement along Rosemount Road will reduce guest numbers.

“I am not confident we can market the business to tourists with trucks hauling past our front door seven days a week,” Mr Carter said.

Mr Carter said his business has had to adjust to the mining boom in recent years, but is fearful this latest development will bring undone many years of hard work.

“We have great fears there will be a decline in our earnings from our business if this submission in its entirety gets approved,” he said.

Carellen Cottages was built from the ground up by the Carters and other family and friends in the Denman community.

It was the Carters’ way to have a livelihood and home that offered flexibility so they could visit their overseas daughter and her family and also set them up for retirement.

“We don’t want to end up having this Orica development impact on our lives and health that could erode us emotionally and physically,” Mr Carter said.

“We have plans for an expansion of Carellen but that has been put on hold now.

“We never really appreciated what we built here until we wanted to sell it last year … then we realised it is our lives and we don’t want to move.

“It’s been able to keep our family together.”