The Newcastle Herald reported that the Mine Subsidence Board bought five homes in the suburb of Lambton for $3.8 million in the 2013 financial year.

“Fourteen homes in McCubbin Way and Roberts Circuit, near the old Skyline drive-in movie site, were damaged when a section of the Old Lambton Colliery workings, that closed around 1910, collapsed in 2012,” the newspaper reported.

“According to information obtained by the Herald under freedom of information laws, at least five of the homes were so badly damaged the owners opted to sell them to the Mine Subsidence Board.”

Most of the properties the board owns were reportedly at the longwall mining hotspot of Tahmoor.

While $17 million was paid over two large claims in the past seven years over subsidence damage to infrastructure, the obtained board data revealed that only 10% of the 438 claims in FY2012 received compensation.

Subsidence expert Professor Philip Pells is seeking further legal reform as he told the newspaper there would be ongoing problems with sinkholes in the state as pillars and workings collapsed underground.

“In far too many cases the system is not working to benefit the people that it should be assisting,” Pells reportedly said.

“It is far too narrow and the onus is always on the residents to prove, against opposition from the board, that the damage is from mine subsidence.

“It can very very, very difficult for people who are impacted by sinkholes or subsidence to be looked after or compensated.”