coal communities

Hundreds of farmers in southeast Queensland have vowed to lock their gates to keep coal and gas explorers at bay. Representatives of eight farmers' and residents' organisations joined the Six Degrees campaign of Friends of the Earth outside the Queensland parliament on Monday to launch the Lock the Gate campaign. They are opposed to miners' plans for up to 40,000 coal seam gas (CSG) wells and massive new coal mines on the rich agricultural lands of the Darling Downs.

Bimblebox nature refuge (BMX) is 8000 Hectares of protected conservation reserve located near Alpha in Central Queensland.

A landmark case in Australia’s environmental history will begin in Brisbane on Monday when environment group Friends of the Earth take on global mining giant Xstrata in a bid to have a proposed mega coal mine in Queensland rejected.

The court case will be the first ever in Australia to argue exclusively for outright refusal of a coal mine based on climate change impacts.

Landholders

Pat and Helen Devlin and farmers and landholders on the edge of the mining lease who have objected to the mine. Their submissions will be heard by the court in the first week of proceedings.

Friends of the Earth congratulates Premier Bligh on the move to protect urban areas from coal mining.

"It's very rare that we congratulate the Labor Government on their approach to coal mining, but with this one they've really got it right," said Friends of the Earth spokesperson Shani Tager. "Finally they've realised that coal mining comes at a cost. They've provided certainty for residents, they've made the same rules apply to coal seam gas extraction and they've given some of the power back to communities through their local council."

Stop the Wandoan Mega Coal Mine!

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The Lock the Gate movement is gathering momentum as more and more communities around the country are refusing to negotiate access to coal and coal seam gas companies, regardless of what approvals governments might have given.

3,000 people yesterday marched through the streets of Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales calling for the gate to be locked on the coal and coal seam gas industries right around the country.

Sources have indicated that the Queensland Government is now considering a plan to restrict the protection of Strategic Cropping Land, buckling under pressure from the Queensland Resources Council to reduce the total area of the State’s landmass to be protected from 4.1% to less than 1.5%. If adopted, the policy would effectively mean that areas such as the Felton Valley and Wandoan have been singled out so they do not qualify as Strategic Cropping Land. This would allow the coal mines proposed by Ambre Energy and Xstrata in both locations to be approved.