The approval comes after 1700 days of assessment, dozens of individual technical studies, more than 125 days of public exhibition and over 30 hours of public hearings.

The proposed development includes rail and coal receiving infrastructure, coal stockpile pads and associated stacking and reclaiming machinery, wharf and berth infrastructure, coal conveyors, feeders, transfer stations and associated infrastructure.

Thee biodiversity offset sites located at Ellalong Lagoon, Brundee Swamp Nagure Reserve and Tomago were also proposed.

T4 will have the capacity to export up to 70 million tonnes of coal a year, and is expected to generate 1500 construction jobs and up to 80 operational positions.

PWCS CEO Hennie du Plooy hailed the approval after almost five years as a “very welcome” milestone, which he said would give the community some certainty around the conditions that would apply to such a development.

“The world has changed since we originally lodged the application for Terminal 4 in 2010 and the need for extra coal export capacity is not so immediate,” du Plooy said.

“Despite this, planning certainty will allow the industry to respond in good time if additional capacity is required.”

Even the PAC itself, in its determination, said: “The project is unusual as there is no immediate need for the development of the terminal”

The federal government is to review the project under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, specifically in relation to its impact on ecology.

In 2012, PWCS projected capacity shortfalls at its Carrington and Kooragang coal terminals in Newcastle by this year, assuming global coal demand would keep growing strongly.

This was based on trends at the time and ultimately triggered the requirements for the company to seek approval for the terminal.

The PAC noted the more recent slowing of coal demand from the Port of Newcastle had exposed overallocations, and in 2013 PWCS voluntarily accepted a reduction in contracted tonnages from the majority of Hunter Valley producers.

PWCS subsequently announced the requirement for T4 had been “un-triggered”

As such, PWCS only proposed to construct T4 and implement the associated environmental management and mitigation measures if the requirements for the terminal were “re-triggered”

T4 would then be progressively constructed in response to demand nominated by coal producers and commercial requirements, with the actual timing and scale of the development dependent on those factors.

The aforementioned environmental management and mitigation measures included contamination management, remediation and a biodiversity offset strategy.

Despite this, activist group Lock the Gate was, of course, furious at the decision, slamming it as “economically and environmentally irresponsible”

“This new and additional coal loader – if built – would enable the ramp up of new open cut coal mines, despite community concern about the industry,” LTG spokesman Nic Clyde said.

“About five new mega coal mines would be required to supply T4, or up to 27 average sized mines,

“Throughout the Hunter Valley and Liverpool Plains, agricultural land, water resources, and remnant bush land have been under extreme pressure as the coal industry rapidly expands. Today’s decision only adds to that pressure.”

Clyde cited Goldman Sachs’ recent report – oft quoted by anti-fossil fuel activists over the past week both in Australia and the US – that noted thermal coal demand peaked in 2013 and would only decline going forward.

“[Goldman Sachs’] note emphatically stated that the industry does not require new investment given the ability of existing assets to satisfy flat demand’,” he said.

Clyde noted that 80% of the coal exported from Newcastle was thermal coal for power stations in 2012-13.

“If the T4 coal project is ever developed it will contribute to the degradation of the local environment, increase coal dust air pollution in Newcastle and the Hunter and exacerbate the threat to farmland and water by encouraging new mines and expansions to existing mines,” Clyde said.