Communities in North West NSW have been fighting to protect land and water resources from the damage caused by coal seam gas for more than a decade.
The North West is a place of natural wonders, enormous cultural significance and some of the state’s most productive farmland.
The region is under threat from the proposed Narrabri Gas Project in the Pilliga forest and two associated high pressure gas pipelines, as well as potential CSG expansion plans out across the Liverpool Plains.
The Pilliga is the largest temperate woodland in eastern Australia and is a haven for birds and animals that are threatened with extinction, including the Pilliga Mouse which occurs nowhere else in Australia.
The Narrabri Gas Project (NGP) would involve drilling 850 coal seam gas wells, clearing land and carving up the Pilliga with roads, pipelines and wellpads, causing untold destruction.
The proposed NGP also extends across a key recharge area of the Great Artesian Basin, which is Australia’s greatest inland water source. Coal seam gas risks draining and polluting this incredible water resource.
The Pilliga has extraordinary cultural significance for Gomeroi Traditional Owners, who have challenged the proposed NGP project in court and have made it clear that they do not consent to it being built on Gomeroi country.
There are two high pressure gas pipelines proposed to link to the Narrabri Gas Project:
The proposed high pressure gas pipelines from the Narrabri Gas Project will disrupt farming operations, create bio-security issues and risk major erosion across the black soil plains of the Liverpool Plains.
Many landholders are concerned pipelines could also open the floodgates to more coal seam gas exploration across the North West - more toxic gas wells, more gas processing facilities and more waste-water ponds.
Under NSW Government plans released in 2021, over 1.2 million hectares in the North West of the state remains open to potential CSG exploration and development, including most of the Liverpool Plains.
In 2020, the NSW and Australian governments granted approval to Santos for the Narrabri gasfield, but Santos is yet to decide to proceed with the gasfield.
Gomeroi Traditional Owners voted overwhelmingly to oppose the Narrabri Gas Project, and they have not given their consent for it to be developed. Gomeroi are currently appealing a decision of the National Native Title Tribunal in relation to the project.
However, previous decisions of the Tribunal have already acknowledged the outstanding cultural significance of the Pilliga.
“The evidence paints a picture of the Pilliga as a cultural landscape where Gomeroi cosmology is alive and the celestial bodies, animals, plants, lands and waters interact with Gomeroi people. Gomeroi totemic structures are linked to this landscape, and it is evident the place the Pilliga holds in the hearts of Gomeroi people as one of the last relatively untouched places they can practice their culture.”
The Native Title Tribunal also acknowledged that water resources in the Pilliga Forest, and Bohena Creek in particular, have very high cultural significance for Gomeroi people - it recognised spiritual significance and value, ceremonial association and provision of drinking water.
Bohena Ck is an ‘upside down’ river that even when it runs dry usually has water below it. It flows into the Namoi River. Most of the proposed NGP would be built within the Bohena Ck catchment, and the Narrabri Lateral Pipeline proposes to drill right under the creek with the pipeline cutting right across it.
The Native Title Tribunal said that there should not be any future ground or surface disturbing work with 500m of Bohena Ck.
Landholders along the length of the Hunter Gas Pipeline have raised major concerns about the impacts on their agricultural operations and on the environment.
A previous pipeline in the region led to a massive erosion event that has caused major problems for the affected landholders.
Many landholders have had to deal with pipeline companies wanting access to their land for the Hunter Gas Pipeline for more than a decade. In many cases the pipeline will pass less than 50m from homes.
Gas pipelines also pose a major explosion risk, with multiple gas pipelines in Queensland having exploded over the last three years.
Since 2018, an alternative future for Narrabri has been taking shape.
The North West Alliance and Lock the Gate conducted door-to-door surveys in Narrabri in the Spring of 2018, knocking on 2,300 doors and collecting survey responses from 840 people.
The results of the survey showed overwhelming positivity in Narrabri towards renewable energy and considerable concern about coal seam gas.
The Narrabri Renewables Report released in 2018 by The Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) at the University of Technology Sydney, revealed that long-term jobs and affordable energy are available to Narrabri from renewable energy.
Two years later, local people created Geni.Energy, with a vision of energy independence and community control in Narrabri.
The proposed Narrabri gasfield in the Pilliga forest has the vocal support of politicians, companies and journalists in national newspapers, but it has never had the support of Gomeroi people or the farming communities of North West NSW, whose opposition to the project continues.
If you are looking for reports, analysis and information about the environmental risks of the Narrabri gasfield prepared over the last ten years, check out the resources page here.
You can also keep up to date with the Unions NSW Pilliga Campaign Committee via the Committee’s facebook page.
Coal seam gas (CSG) proposals put land, water and culture at risk, and have been rejected by local communities in north-west NSW, including Gomeroi Traditional Owners and farmers. CSG will turbocharge climate change and cause more droughts, floods and fires.
We know the path forward for NSW isn’t more gas, but less. Victoria and the ACT both have plans to get off gas by electrifying industry and homes, but NSW does not.
We can make dramatic reductions in gas demand in NSW by supporting households and businesses to switch to renewables which would reduce energy costs and help with the cost of living, perpetually.
We don’t need the Narrabri Gas Project or the pipelines that go with it – all it will do is drive up energy bills and destroy our region.
To: NSW Premier Chris Minns, NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe
cc: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Minister for Climate change Chris Bowen,
We're calling on you to:
-Stop CSG projects planned for the Pilliga forest and our foodbowl on the Liverpool Plains, and associated pipeline infrastructure that will stretch across the Hunter and north-west NSW - harming land, water and culture.
-Support renewable alternatives that have community backing instead and develop a gas substitution roadmap and energy efficiency measures for households and businesses to ease cost of living pressures and deliver real action on climate change.