A community meeting in the Somerset region last night voted overwhelmingly to lock the gate to mining that could threaten local waterways and Brisbane’s water supply.

The meeting at Toogoolawah near Esk attracted around 200 concerned residents, farmers, business people and Somerset Regional Council representatives.

The Lock The Gate Alliance has called on the NSW Resources Minister, Anthony Roberts, to pull back from his governments support for CSG mining in the Pilliga forest and other parts of NSW, following admissions by gas companies and IPART that that the greatest threat to gas prices in NSW is the CSG export industry itself.

Brisbane’s water supply could be under threat if mining is allowed in the Somerset Region, says the Lock the Gate Alliance (LTG).

LTG’s National President, Drew Hutton said the state government was demanding mining go ahead in the region despite the concerns of residents, businesses, farmers and the Somerset Regional Council.

An area of forest approved to offset the clearing of Leard State Forest for the Maules Creek coal mine, near Boggabri in NSW, has been found to contain as little as 5 per cent of the critically endangered ecological community of box-gum woodland that it supposedly replaces, a new report finds.

The report by botanist Dr John Hunter, released today, was commissioned by Lock the Gate after major concerns were raised by three other ecologists about the accuracy of vegetation maps used to gain the Whitehaven mine approval.

120 farmers and community members from across the NSW North West spent this morning protesting Santos coal seam gas operations in the Pilliga, travelling to the site from Bellata, Coonamble, Spring Plain, Wee Waa, Coonabarrabran, Gilgandra, Gunnedah, Mullaley, Tambar Spring, Narrabri, Edgeroi and more. 

The group participated in protests at the site of a coal seam gas waste water pipeline laying operation, and a blockade of the access road to a coal seam gas drill rig, disrupting Santos' activities for hours.