By Mark Anning It was interesting to see the opinion piece written by Peter Reith for The Drum – Fracking scare campaigns threaten our prosperity – especially considering Reith is a paid political lobbyist and chairman of the Victorian Government’s task force on the eastern gas market. “The public debate is soon mired in myriad false claims, partly […]
Occupy East Coast Gas Conference – Melinda Wilson reports
October 31, 2013
NEWS COMMENT By Melinda Wilson Over a hundred people from a wide range of community groups across Sydney and NSW voiced their concerns about the coal seam gas industry outside the East Coast Gas Outlook Conference in Sydney last week. Government and industry were at the 22 October conference to discuss ways for agriculture and […]
Same state, different rules: Penny Blatchford @NoCSGGurley asks why some people in NSW get special treatment?
October 31, 2013
By Penny Blatchford Most Australians enjoy the freedom to make choices about their lives – whom we marry, if we will have children, where we live and where we work. It would seem for people like me who choose to marry a farmer, have a family, live on the farm and make that farm our […]
Black Rain: Waiting for results in Tara – Rob Rimmer reports
October 29, 2013
By Rob Rimmer On August 2, 2013 Western Downs resident Steve Ansford made a complaint to Origin Energy’s local office at Chinchilla regarding mysterious environmental and health impacts occurring on his property at Upper Humbug Road, near Tara in Queensland. For the second day running, southerly winds appeared to have brought an overnight shower: drops […]
Queensland knows what QGC are not, so what the fraccing hell are they? Story seeking CJ @stephaniedale22
October 28, 2013
Commercial television networks in south-east Queensland have been screening a series of advertisements from 2011 through to last weekend, for a company announcing: 1. the creation of employment in the region (despite not being an employment agency), 2. a boost to the economy (despite not being the Treasury), 3. and the injection of millions of […]
Six years in a dust storm: life near a coal mine Aileen Harrison reports
October 28, 2013
By Aileen Harrison* In April 1998 we moved into our dream home at Highland Plains, near Acland, Queensland, starting a tourist attraction with bus loads of tourists arriving to see our alpacas, as well as our craft and memorabilia display. Alas for us, the Acland open cut coal mine started up in August 2002. We […]
Treated CSG water to be pumped into town water supply – story seeking CJ @stephaniedale22
October 28, 2013
Treated coal seam gas water will be pumped into Chinchilla‘s drinking supply, under a new scheme announced by Western Downs Regional Council. QGC (formerly Queensland Gas Company) has announced it will begin pumping 80 megalitres of treated water a day to the Chinchilla weir, for use in agriculture and for domestic purposes. Western Downs mayor, […]
Groundwater: out of sight, not out of mind: @molessarah reports
October 24, 2013
By Sarah Moles Very wise people have said some crucially important things about water. For me, Leonardo Da Vinci summed it up best with: “Water is the driving force of all nature”. W.H. Auden comes a close second: “Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” Given its essential place in supporting life, […]
Conflicts of interest, Tara data and baseline studies: Katherine Marchment reports
October 24, 2013
[clear] By Katherine Marchment CSG is suspected to have negative impacts on the environment (water, air and soil), as well as economically and on human and animal health. The information that can be accessed about this is too abundant for one article. Therefore, for the purposes of this article, I will concentrate only on the […]
Emerging democracy and the No Fibs Vision: @stephaniedale22 reports
October 21, 2013
By Stephanie Dale No Fibs – we’re a citizen journalism experiment emboldened by the success of our coverage in the 2013 federal election campaign. And we’re turning our attentions to the robust CSG movement that has emerged along Australia’s east coast. It’s true. We’re upstarts, punching above our weight. During the recent election we had […]
