coal communities

On Thursday, 2nd September, Six Degrees spokesperson on coal seam gas Drew Hutton addressed the Queensland Rural Press Club in Toowoomba. The Queensland Rural Press Club  invited Drew to address its second annual Heritage Toowoomba AgShow breakfast to discover how the farming community and the green movement have found common ground in an era of unprecedented mining and resource exploration and development across some of Queensland’s most productive land. A transcript of the speech is provided here.

In the Parliament last week, Independent member for Nanango Dorothy Pratt spoke passionately about the impact that the Queensland Government's experiments with underground coal gasification and coal seam gas is having on her constituents. We were so moved by this speech, we thought we'd share it with you.

Minister Stephen Robinson and Department of Environment and Resource Management Director-General John Bradley will finally face the community of Kingaroy on Wednesday August 25th, to address a public meeting of locals citizens concerned about Cougars Energy’s Underground Coal Gasification project. He will be accompanied by three members of an industry expert panel appointed to assess the impact of the project, and in particular the contamination event that became public in mid-July.

The small town of Wandoan is set to become the second Queensland town to be swallowed up or, at best, made unlivable by an open cut coal mine.

We often get asked why we called this campaign Six Degrees. And while we've had an explanation on our website for a while, many people in urban Queensland are not aware of the full extent of the number of groups that make up the movement fighting fossil fuel expansion in all its horrific forms.

New action groups across Queensland are forming literally everyday. Here's a taste.

Yesterday's People's Assembly at Queensland's Parliament House brought together hundreds of farming families and environmentalists to Queensland Parliament - united in their opposition to coal and gas mining on prime agricultural lands. 

The peaceful protest combined the strength and the passion of the farming and environmental movements of Queensland to put pressure on the State Government to protect farming land and nature refuges from the encroachment of all forms of coal mining and the potential poisoning of waterways.

THE Queensland Government is facing an increasingly united front against the incursion of mining onto prime agricultural land.

As Premier Anna Bligh prepares for a series of government and industry-directed community forums through regions affected by coal seam gas, the grassroots protest movement continues to strengthen.

ABC Radio presenter Steve Austin interviewed Scott Collins on the 30th July, 2010. Mr Collins is a property owner at Tara and the resident who purchased his own gas testing equipment to check for gas well head leaks. It was his complaint that lead to the state government inspection of well heads around Tara.

The State Government must come clean about its cover-ups of pollution incidents involving both coal seam gas and underground coal gasification projects in the Surat Basin. In the latest incident in Kogan Creek, landholders had alerted the Bligh Government to mercury levels 5 times the acceptable limit in January, but departmental officers did not respond until July. That is plainly unacceptable.

Six Degrees spokesperson on coal seam gas Drew Hutton said these incidents had followed one after another so that a pattern of cover-up and complicity was clear.

Farmers, environmentalists and concerned citizens will take their voices to state parliament at midday on Wednesday the 4th of August to demand that the Queensland Government protects Queensland’s cropping land, ground water and rural communities from coal and coal seam gas mining.