{"id":17069,"date":"2014-04-10T16:34:53","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T06:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=17069"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:58:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:58:08","slug":"after-the-csg-boom-narrabri-farmers-concerned-about-the-bust-carlywladkowski-reports-pilliga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/after-the-csg-boom-narrabri-farmers-concerned-about-the-bust-carlywladkowski-reports-pilliga\/","title":{"rendered":"After the CSG boom, Narrabri farmers concerned about the bust: @CarlyWladkowski reports #Pilliga"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NARRABRI<\/a>

(Photo: supplied)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Residents of Narrabri, in the northwestern plains of New South Wales, met last week to protest exploratory mining on local farms, and the Santos proposal for the region.<\/p>\n

Campaign groups, such as Lock the Gate and Greenpeace, have been working with local farmers to co-ordinate efforts against a proposed Coal Seam Gas (CSG) field.<\/p>\n

Local farmers at the protest also questioned Santos\u2019 involvement within the Narrabri community.<\/p>\n

Nicki Kirkby, a farmer from nearby Bellata, said: \u201cThe community is pretty split at the moment\u2026 [lots of people] don\u2019t want to be publicly one way or the other”.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur ability to sponsor lots of community things has been down in the last few years, [Santos] have really capitalised on this,” Ms. Kirby said, “it really cons the community and splits the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santos, a South Australian based company, submitted its Preliminary Environmental Assessment to the NSW state government in early April.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally in town, people are accepting the Santos message\u2026 us here, in this area, we have a lot to lose,\u201d said Geoff O\u2019Neill, local farmer and campaigner, \u201cwe don\u2019t have a PR machine like Santos.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Santos, the introduction of the Pilliga CSG field would bring over 1200 jobs to skilled local tradespeople, and potentially up to 200 ongoing positions. The company also introduced a $160 million community fund in conjunction with the CSG field.<\/p>\n

In a press release, Santos stated: \u201cSantos understands that benefits generated by the project need to be delivered to the community while minimising any potential impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Drew Hutton, an environmental campaigner and Lock the Gate activist, noted there is very little research on social impacts on mining towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only about 11 per cent [of people] in mining towns [who]\u00a0register they are better off with mining. 60 per cent say they are worse off, not just economically,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnecdotally\u2026 they can\u2019t sleep, and sleep is so important to mental health. Especially the men [near coal mines]\u2026 they seem to be prone to depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext to coal mines, it is particularly prevalent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Activist Dayne Pratzky, of the Pilliga blockade, said the economic impacts completely devastate the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people make a lot of money, most people don\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they leave, the construction phase is over, the town is empty\u2026 every boom, there is a bust that follows.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a moral desertion of a whole district.”<\/p>\n

Santos was contacted for discussion, but no comment was provided.\u00a0The company’s community and social policies include meaningful employment and funding for local groups, but many believe the social policies need to be considered further to prevent social damage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Residents of Narrabri, in the northwestern plains of New South Wales, met last week to protest exploratory mining on local farms, and the Santos proposal for the region. Campaign groups, such as Lock the Gate and Greenpeace, have been working with local farmers to co-ordinate efforts against a proposed Coal Seam Gas (CSG) field. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":17073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,1584,1739,514,1752,585],"tags":[2659,1484,1485,1486],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/NARRABRI-FARMERS.jpg?fit=799%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-4rj","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}