chicken or the egg

If you use the arguement of "who was here first",you could argue that the current land users in BM occupied land, on top of historically known coal deposits, was it possible that the land was originally given to the first lease holders because of its wothless value, because it was sitting on top of coal that was to be mined in the future? We probably will never know the answer as these days possesion appears to over rule common sense. On an economical front, the return to the Vict gov from a successful Mantle/Exergen venture for exporting beneficated brown coal, would far outway any income from the existing farmland and create oppotunities in other areas including renewable energy that can carry the state forward in years to come. If a landholder wishes to take a financial benefit and sell his land to a coal miner there is no public forum or gov to tell him he can't do it, but when a proposal to mine coal in a sensitive area arises, there are plenty of people that come together,some how, to tell them they can't do it, but as i say [repeating myself] if an individual wants to sell his property, these same people that are against the coal miner, don't force the property owner to stay on his land and maintain his current existence. Landholders and coal miners have a long process of negotiations to be able to give both or either satisfaction to their requirements, the Vict gov also has vested interests in the outcome. Also the end user of the beneficated coal has financial and social issues that have to be considered in this process, do we ignore the plight of other countries trying to develop, because we don't want, or cannot handle, a change in our comfortable life style/environment, somehow I don't think so, benefits of bringing this resource to fruition in my opinion greatly outway the negatives, coal mining has helped get us to where we are now, and will continue to assist carrying us in to a renewable energy future. If you don't have change, then how do you change the future!