Community champion Susan Lyle in King’s Birthday honours

DYLAN SMITH

Dedication to the Gunnedah community, and her role in the David-and-Goliath battle against BHP and Shenhua on the Liverpool Plains, has seen Susan Lyle awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.

Lyle was announced as a medal recipient in the King’s Birthday honours on Monday.

Growing up in Breeza, spending a large part of her life on the Lyle family farm with her husband John, and now enjoying retirement in Gunnedah, local causes have been at the heart of Lyle’s community involvement.

She served as chair of the Caroona Coal Action Group from 2011 to 2022, has been involved in Red Cross since 1984 as a volunteer and currently as president, and was chair and a board member of Gunnedah Nursing Home from 1990 to 1997.

Reflecting on her involvements, Lyle emphasised that she was the leader of “three very good teams”.

“I’ve had some very good teams behind me,” she said.
Her involvement with the Caroona Coal Action Group was particularly rewarding, with both BHP and Shenhua abandoning plans for open-cut mining on the Liverpool Plains.

The group consisted of a committee of about 14 people and heavily contested the plans by the two mining companies.

Lyle acknowledged that the farming community south of Curlewis was also very much part of the successful fight.

“The farming community were very much involved with the support that they gave us,” she said.

“We had an incredible legal team.”

Lyle also acknowledged the work by scientists as well, which contributed to their success.

“BHP withdrew because they knew the damage that they would do,” she said.

While BHP abandoned their plans, the fight would continue later on with Shenhua, which also sought to mine on the Liverpool Plains.

“That was another four years,” Lyle said of Shenhua.

“We were able to get scientific knowledge from the BHP bores.”

Lyle praised the community for its support while also acknowledging the important work of Andrew Beatty, Ballanda Sack, emeritus professor Ian Acworth and indigenous Gomeroi traditional custodians.

“We battled and battled. It was a very costly experience,” she said.

“The money that came from the community and from elsewhere was unbelievable.”

Lyle said her husband had been a great sounding board during the entire process.

She experienced a similar groundswell of community support during her involvement in the Gunnedah Nursing Home, which was then the early stages of the aged care facility now located on Apex Road.

At the time, Gunnedah did not have access to a facility of that nature. The board worked tirelessly on the early component of the aged care home which has since expanded over the years and is now operated by McLean Care.

“It was a lot of fun,” Lyle said of being involved in the development of the facility.

“The community raised an enormous amount of money – about $750,000.”

Both involvements in the Caroona Coal Action Group and the aged care home involved regular travel to Sydney.
Red Cross has featured as part of Lyle’s life for a longer period of time – since 1984. She is also president of the Gunnedah branch.

Her mother-in-law, Audrey Lyle, had also been involved in the organisation and Lyle is proud to continue the family’s involvement with the much-loved group.

Lyle remembers fondly working in the former Red Cross shop on Abbott Street.

“Red Cross continues to be very pleasing,” she said of the organisation.

Lyle will be invited to receive her medal at an investiture ceremony at a later date.