The Upper Hunter Valley is located in central east New South Wales about 200 kilometres north of Sydney and 50 kilometres north-west of Newcaslte. For the purpose of this report the region includes three Local Government Areas (LGAs) that form part of the Hunter Regional Development Area. The Upper Hunter can be described as a multi-industry region due to its thriving, yet unrelated, industries. The case study focuses on the Upper Hunter region paying particular attention to Singleton and Muswellbrook LGAs, where coal mines are concentrated. Figures 2-4 illustrate the diversity of land usage in the Upper Hunter Valley (Figure 2), with Figure 3 focusing on Singleton and Figure 4 on Muswellbrook. Mixed land-uses include open pit coal mining, cropping land, grazing land, wine vineyards and horse studs. However, it is not all in commercial production as National Parks make up 43% of Muswellbrook shire for example.