Darling Downs farmers have protested to protect priority agricultural farmland threatened by Arrow Energy’s expanding Surat Gas Project, demanding the Crisafulli Government make good on its election promise to protect the critical Condamine Alluvium from CSG drilling.
Today (Thursday April 17), dozens of farmers protested at the edge of Arrow Energy’s Surat Gas Project, which is expanding on to some of Queensland's best farmland.
Photos and vision are available here.
Arrow Energy is a multinational joint venture owned by Shell and PetroChina. The vast majority of the coal seam gas it extracts from beneath Queensland farms is exported overseas as liquified gas.
Among the farmers' reasons for opposing Arrow's expansion is that coal seam gas-induced subsidence is causing farmland in the gas zones of inland Queensland to sink - even farms that do not host coal seam gas infrastructure.
Cecil Plains farmer Liza Balmain said, “This area holds some of Queensland’s most productive soils - this is one of Australia’s most fertile food bowls. Yet Arrow Energy’s Surat Gas Project is already causing subsidence. Wells drilled on neighbouring properties are causing long term damage to farms that host no coal seam gas infrastructure.
“The LNP promised farmers it would strengthen protections of the critically important Condamine Alluvium and the surrounding priority farmland from new coal seam gas drilling in the leadup to the State Election, but six months on, that promise remains unfulfilled. The Crisafulli Government must make good on this election promise before further damage is done."
Springvale farmer Celia Karp said, “I am a farmer under threat right now. Arrow Energy is working on the neighbouring property and the scale of construction is unbelievable, but Arrow has not given us any meaningful information. We have asked for it but they haven’t given it to us.
“CSG a blight on this rural landscape. All we are going to see is an industrial landscape littered with gaswells, and it’s totally unacceptable. It’s going to compromise the farms through subsidence and impacted bores with loss of water. That’s the thing that most concerns us, the loss of underground water, which is critical in a drying climate.
“We do not want a bar of this coal seam gas activity on our productive farms; it will impact our incomes, our way of life, and the quality of the farm we leave to the next generation.
“The government needs to step in and do its job.”
Lock the Gate Alliance spokesperson and South Burnett farmer Nick Holliday said, “This protest was a warning: the Crisafulli Government is about to find a whole heap of angry farmers on the steps of parliament house if it doesn’t make good on its election promise to protect critical Condamine Alluvium from coal seam gas.
“Queensland’s planning laws are failing farmers. The shortfalls need to urgently be addressed in order to protect Queensland’s best farming country from coal seam gas damage.
“These farmers are demanding to be heard, yet so far all they’ve had has been empty promises. Queensland’s best farming country must not be sacrificed to coal seam gas.”
ENDS
Background:
Coal seam gas induced subsidence occurs when the extraction of gas and water from the coal seams causes land above to sink. It can cause impacts to farmland 2-3 kilometres from the actual drilling location. As recognised by Coexistence Qld (formerly GasFields Commission Qld), it is a permanent impact that can cause potentially high production losses where effective drainage is impaired through landform changes resulting from CSG-induced subsidence.
Under Queensland planning law, gas companies must apply for a Regional Interest Planning Approval (RIDA) if they wish to drill on priority agricultural land, including through the Condamine Alluvium. A RIDA is required when a resource or regulated activity is proposed in an area of "regional interest". However, in practice, gas companies do not always complete RIDA's before drilling on priority agricultural land, due to the self-assessment of exemptions and the lack of regulatory oversight over this process.
The Condamine Alluvium is the only recognised regionally significant water source in Queensland. In the leadup to the last year’s State Election, local MP Pat Weir promised farmers that a Crisafulli Government would protect this aquifer and the overlying priority agricultural land from damage caused by the coal seam gas industry. The government is yet to implement any changes to make good on this promise.