A satellite image taken from GoogleMaps shows the extent of the scarring between Singleton and Muswellbrook in the wake of insatiable demand for the region's coal.

The image dates back 18 months, making it almost certain that the region's expanding mining industry has further affected its landscape.

Upper Hunter raw coal production has gone from 60 million tonnes a year in 1994 to 112 million tonnes in 2007.

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said she was shocked when she flew over the area in a light plane.

"It was some miners who said to us 'you won't understand how massive this devastation is until you see it from the air'," she said.

"The cumulative damage to rivers and water sources, productive farming land and air quality is vast, and rehabilitation of much of this land is a fantasy."

Muswellbrook Mayor Martin Rush said mines had slowly taken over Muswellbrook shire, leaving it a "virtual moonscape".

"And that's only the open-cut mining," he said.

"If you add underground mining into that equation every bit of land has been subject to mining."

A NSW Minerals Council spokesman said mining companies had invested in progressive rehabilitation throughout the life of their operations.

Rehabilitation was done progressively, where conditions permitted, and in line with best practice.

"You could look at a mine from above for 20 years and see a hole in the ground, but over that time the hole is moving and affected areas are being rehabilitated," the spokesman said.

"Holes in the ground are not visually beautiful, but the benefits of these operations are hugely important for the people of the Hunter and its economy."

One of the Hunter's biggest mining companies, Coal & Allied, rehabilitated 179 hectares of land in 2008, 19 hectares more than its target.

Anglo Coal has planted more than 2500 red river gum seedlings on reaches of the Hunter River since 2006, expanding the remnant strand of gums by eight hectares.

Insurances were also in place for mined sites.

In December the NSW Government held more than $1.143 billion in environmental securities, bonds lodged by mines to cover rehabilitation costs if they were unable to meet them for any reason.