Perhaps the worst, until last week, was the false report filed at the Australian stock exchange by anti-coal campaigner, Jonathan Moylan, who circulated a false email purportedly from ANZ Bank claiming it had withdrawn a $1.2 billion loan for the Maules Creek mine of Whitehaven Coal.

Moylan is scheduled to have his day in court on July 11, an event which should provide plenty of air time for more anti-coal protests, this time on the court-house steps.

There seems little doubt that what Moylan did was more than wrong. It cost some investors dearly because the email he wrote temporarily knocked more than $300 million off the stock market value of Whitehaven.

Less financial harm has been caused by the latest anti-coal stunt, which appears to involve the creation of false Aboriginal hand painting in a cave near the proposed expansion by Coalpac of the Invincible Colliery west of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.

Inquiries are continuing into the discovery of the painting, or stencil as it is called, but if it turns out to be a modern fabrication the creators of the impression in the cave wall have committed multiple wrongs that start with creating a false impression to denigrating the Aboriginal people by using them for a questionable environmental campaign.

Without detailing more of the stunts perpetrated by the anti-coal crusaders it is possible to say that a pattern is emerging and that is the use of any means possible, legal or illegal, to denigrate coal mining in an attempt to kill of one Australia’s most important industries.

At this point, some readers might be inclined to say “what’s new”

Well, as far as The Hog is concerned what’s new in the case of Moylan and his false email, and the mysterious appearance of an Aboriginal hand painting that seems to be less than four years old, is that it might be time for Australian governments (and voters) to look a bit closer at the tactics being used by campaigners, their objectives, and the potential costs involved.

Let’s look at the tactics first, because they really are starting to become more worrying and more desperate.

Coal companies can sense the change and are becoming worried about the impact on their business interests and safety of employees, which is why much closer surveillance of the protestors is underway.

Without stretching the point too far there are many examples of the extreme element in an environmental protest movement shifting from letter writing to damaging equipment to endangering lives.

The case best remembered by The Hog, because it involved a person who went to the same school, was the bombing of a wood chip export terminal in the WA port of Bunbury.

Fired by misguided aims of protecting the environment, and perhaps fuelled by anger and booze, the Bunbury bombing was reasonably successful, shutting port operations for a while – not that it saved the villain from a long stretch in jail.

And that’s the point being made by The Hog. As a protest movement gathers pace and the tenor of the claims becomes more strident the risk of something dangerous happening grows, perhaps to the point of the Bunbury port bombing.

Anti-coal protestors will, naturally, claim that they have no intention of going that far.

However, they are the same people who see the filing of false banking emails as perfectly acceptable and the creation of false Aboriginal hand paintings as part of a grand game.

As coal mining continues, which it will, the more extreme elements of the protest movement will feel the need to become more extreme in their protests with the death of truth in their claims a first step down the extremist path.

Australian governments, state and federal, should be on the alert as the anti-coal campaign ratchets up in stridency with next month’s scheduled court appearance of Moylan a rallying point for the protestors.

As for the newly-discovered Aboriginal hand stencil it will be really (as in really, really) interesting to see what happens when it is confirmed as a fake.

Will anyone from the anti-coal movement own up or apologise – or will it simply become another example of truth being a casualty of war.