The Land and Environment Court’s Senior Commissioner Moore presided over the hearing at Muswellbrook Court House from June 23 to 25 and scheduled the adjournment to July 23 in Sydney.

The town planning consultant involved believes a decision may not be made for up to six weeks.

“It’s a complex case with a lot of issues,” Synergy Environmental Planning’s Garry Warnes said.

“I expect the Commissioner will reserve his judgement for five to six weeks.”

The developer of the worker’s camp is Queensland company Maroon Group Pty Ltd however, Mr Warnes signed the development application, which legally makes him the applicant.

Therefore he was required to attend the three-day hearing.

“There was a lot of evidence given and they simply ran out of time,” Mr Warnes said.

“We had a lot of expert witnesses including odour, engineering noise and landscaping experts, residents and two independent town planners who still haven’t finished giving evidence.”

He said it was ‘standard procedure’ to appeal to the Land and Environment Court if an applicant was dissatisfied with a council’s decision.

Mr Warnes said the proposed miners’ camp, known as MGA Village Muswellbrook, could house 401 people including a manager.

The relocatable home hostel is designed to provide temporary short- to medium-term accommodation for mine workers.

Muswellbrook Shire Council staff recommended approval of the worker’s camp DA last year, but it was unanimously refused by councillors in November, because it did not meet zoning requirements.

Mr Warnes said council staff could not be called to give evidence as they were legally seen as already having made their decision on the camp.

He said they were relatively confident of winning the case.

“Going through the Land and Environment Court is an expensive process so we wouldn’t have taken it to court if we didn’t think we had a case,” he said.

“It’s a big development which will contribute significant employment and investment in Muswellbrook.”