Update: Coonamble farmer Mark Robinson has been arrested and taken to Narrabri police station for processing after locking himself Santos coal seam gas drill rig gates and delaying drill workers accessing the site for over three hours.
Mr Robinson said, “The NSW North West is no place for invasive gasfields that will put our precious groundwater at risk.”
“As a farmer it shocks me that despite knowing the risks to water, our government seems to be blindly rushing ahead to support Santos’ plans to turn the North West food bowl into a massive industrial gasfield.
“Food producers are going to keep on standing up and clearly telling Santos to back off - we are not your next gasfield."
The action comes after seven people were arrested opposing Santos operations in the Pilliga last week, and more than 120 farmers and their families travelled into the Santos drilling operations in the Pilliga, stopping work on site to voice community concerns with the Narrabri Gas Project.
Santos plans to drill coal seam gas wells right through the recharge aquifers of the Great Artesian Basin, an essential water source for regional and outback Australia.