Fact-finding trip to Darling Downs unites farmers and environmentalists
30th of Jun, 2010
On Saturday 26th June, Six Degrees and the Basin Sustainability Alliance co-ordinated a fact-finding mission to the Darling Downs, where 48 environmentalists, social justice advocates and community organisers from the city visited the communities of the Darling Downs threatened by coal and coal seam gas.
The trip was a tremendous success, and a key step in building understanding and relationships across the Great Dividing Range (literally and figuratively!).
The generosity of the Darling Downs communities towards us was utterly humbling.
We were told many stories of bullying tactics by the industry, of the loss of rights, of the uniqueness of the farming lands, of the depth of the community's passion for the landscape. We heard too of the risks they were facing: from polluted groundwater, to salty soils, to gas explosions and contaminated rivers.
We also saw the devastation that was the town of Acland - a former thriving rural village, now ghost-town, and soon an enormous open cut coal mine.
All of this confirmed to us two things:
- that a moratorium must be imposed immediately on all further coal seam gas development (or CSG) until it can be demonstrated that they will not have unacceptable social and environmental impacts. We anticipate that the minimum amount of time required to establish a sufficient evidence base to proceed with CSG development is five years.
- that the proposed coal mine at Acland not be allowed to proceed.
In all, we were and remain honoured to stand together with the farmers of the Downs in their struggles to maintain their land, water and livelihoods against the threat of coal and gas expansion in the region.
Photos from the event can be downloaded from our Facebook page.
An excerpt from the media coverage of the tour is below.
This tour is to be the first of many that will help to improve understanding, empathy and solidarity in the campaign against unchecked coal and gas expansion in Queensland threatening our best quality farmlands.
Mining Unites Farmers and Environmentalists
by Jacinta Cummins, 28th June 2010.
It was an uncommon sight, but one that Australian Greens co-founder Drew Hutton expects to be repeated numerous times in the coming months.
Forty-eight environmentalists and social justice advocates shared a barbecue lunch with farmers and landowners in Cecil Plains, Dalby and Acland on Saturday while they learnt more about the effects of proposed coal and coal seam gas mining on the Darling Downs.
Trip co-ordinator Mr Hutton said the trip, which was jointly organised by Friends of the Earth in Brisbane and the Basin Sustainability Alliance (BSA), symbolised a meeting of what have traditionally been viewed as two opposite sides of the fence: conservation and agriculture.
He urged farmers, landholders and environmentalists to unite to ensure the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) isn’t destroyed for what many see as a short-lived industry, coal seam gas mining:
I think this is the start of an alliance between environmentalists and the farmers, which is incredibly valuable.
We had so many people wanting to come that I had to turn them away.
Dalby farmer and BSA chairman Ian Hayllor agreed the trip was part of forging a new alliance:
We were able to inform conservation groups about how we’re operating our farms for sustainability and just how ridiculous it is for the government to allow an under-researched and unsustainable industry to come in and potentially destroy what has taken generations to achieve.
Mr Hutton has described the potential damage to the GAB as being one of the biggest environmental disasters facing Australia.
This follows an announcement by Arrow Energy at its community information road show in Cecil Plains last Tuesday that it will not proceed with any CSG mining in the area for the next three years until it knows more about working in black soil and dealing with the CSG water by-product.
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