July 22, 2024
Farmers fighting the expansion of the coal seam gas industry have opened a volunteer-run community outreach centre in Dalby.
The office is just three doors down from the office of Arrow Energy which is proposing to drill on their properties.
The farmers oppose the Shell / PetroChina joint venture’s plans to expand its Surat Gas Project on what they describe as “priority” agricultural land.
The group says Arrow Energy is considering its final investment decision for the next stage of the project, which would involve the drilling of hundreds of new coal seam gas wells east of the Condamine River.
“This community outreach centre will be a resource hub where people can access support for dealing with the threat of coal seam gas,” Save Our Darling Downs spokesperson Liza Balmain said.
“It will also provide information about the importance of the agricultural sector in this area. The Darling Downs really is a world renowned food bowl and it is a travesty that the Queensland Government is sacrificing it and the water that sustains it to polluting coal seam gas multinationals.
“We grow cotton, sorghum, chickpeas, wheat, and other grains and legumes that feed and clothe Queensland and the world, all underpinned by the precious Condamine Alluvium, which is right now threatened by the gas industry’s voracious appetite for groundwater.
“Coal seam gas-induced subsidence, caused by the extraction of vast quantities of gas and water from beneath the earth, is also causing fertile cropping country on the Darling Downs to sink.
“Coal seam gas and farming are totally incompatible in this part of the world. We must protect the future integrity of this rich agricultural region and its invaluable groundwater from destructive coal seam gas.”
The group says State Government statistics show that – as at June 2021 – 16,499 coal seam gas wells have been drilled in Queensland, with that figure to more than double if all planned projects go ahead.
