A GROUP of 25 North West NSW farmers took a trip to Chinchilla, Queensland, to discover what it might be like to co-exist with a coal seam gas industry.
The group took tours through gas fields and met Qld farmers to discuss what it was like living among the industry.
The NSW farmers, who live close to the Santos project area near Narrabri, were alarmed by the extent and scale of the industrialisation associated with the Qld coal seam gas (CSG) fields.
Boggabri farmer Alistair Donaldson said there was a level of despair from the Qld farmers he met living among coal seam gas, as they said companies hadn’t revealed their intentions.
This concerned the Northern NSW farmers who felt they had been left in the dark about Santos’ plans for the Narrabri area.
“The take-home message for me was these projects move out in a massive way,” Mr Donaldson said.
“The absence of Santos offering any creditable information as to what their plans are means we have to make assumptions.
“We can expect a major gas field in the Pilliga, one in the lower Liverpool Plains and there’s the possibility of one going in at Tooraweenah and west of Gunnedah.”
The farmers flew over a Queensland Gas Company gas field and drove through Santos country east of Injune.
Mr Donaldson said the group drove for five hours and didn’t see the end of the infrastructure in the major gas field.
He said he then formed the view that the notion mining and agriculture could co-exist was extremely unlikely.
“In my opinion the industrialisation was worse than the coal mines,” he said.
“It’s not just the Narrabri project area, it’s about a massive industrialisation of the landscape.”
A spokeswoman for Santos said while there was significant infrastructure associated with the company’s project areas in Qld, there were four major projects under construction and once it was complete, the scale of activity would become much smaller.
She said these Qld projects were far larger in scope than what was proposed for the Narrabri Gas Project and the area wouldn’t require that scale of infastructure.
“As part of the environmental impact statement for the project, Santos will be required to have plans in place to minimise and mitigateany impacts from the project,” she said.
As far as communicating with landholders in close proximity to the Narrabri Gas Project, the spokeswoman said the company had been very clear about the details of the project and had provided landholders with information regarding their plans.
“All landholders within our project area have been provided with information about the proposed project and been invited to a series of information sessions about our plans,” she said.
“The map of our project area is on our website and is also contained in an information brochure on the proposed Narrabri Gas Project, which was distributed to homes and businesses throughout the shire at the end of last year.”
The spokeswoman said Santos was confident the farming and mining industries would be able to co-exist, just as they did in Qld and elsewhere.
Australian Petroleum Producers and Explorers Association (APPEA) spokesman Chris Ward said it was disappointing the farmers didn’t talk to small business owners, community groups and the many landholders happy to have gas production on their properties.
“Natural gas has been safely sourced from coal seams in Qld for 20 years and meets almost 100 per cent of the State’s gas needs,” he said.
“It’s breathed new life into flagging country towns without any evidence to support professional scare campaigns orchestrated by the Lock the Gate Alliance.”
Mr Ward said the gas industry had seen rural Qld towns such as Chinchilla, Roma and Miles boom with new businesses, such as beauticians.