coal communities

On the 19th July, Six Degrees and Friends of the Earth spokesperson Drew Hutton was interviewed by Steve Austin from 612 ABC Radio. The interview outlines the full extent of the risk to some of Australia's best farming land from the range of coal extractive industries.

Listen to the interview here. 

Contamination of groundwater at Kingaroy by the cancer-causing chemicals benzene and toluene from the Cougar Energy Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) plant has highlighted the health risks of a proposed coal-to-fuel project at Felton, 30km southwest of Toowoomba.

With cabinet now considering it's new "strategic cropping land" legislation to protect some farmland from mining and the coal seam gas issue heating up, now is the time to take our voices to parliament.

A fact sheet compiled by three expert agronomists from Dalby in Queensland's Darling Downs warns of how coal seam gas extraction will deplete underground irrigation water supplies, contaminate agricultural land, destroy long term food production and town water supplies. Their review sets out clearly the incompatibility of Coal Seam Gas and intensive farming.

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.

Earlier this week, the Basin Sustainability Alliance hosted  a seminar featuring groundwater engineer and researcher Colin Hazel speaking about what he sees as the possible impacts of gas extraction on the Great Artesian Basin.

In many parts of Queensland currently under threat from coal mining and gas extraction, the community is not waiting for government action on climate change. Instead, they are working to develop alternative pathways for future energy and food security that are not dependent upon coal. One inspiring example is evident in the Felton Valley, where the community has developed a renewable energy plan for an area which is under threat from a proposed open cut coal mine.

Mining coal has long been perceived as the ‘engine room’ of Queensland’s economy and the exploitation of our great mineral wealth is supported by Governments of all persuasions. For politicians, the possibility of transitioning Queensland to be less dependent on coal is considered a fanciful idea at best. Despite international commitments to limit greenhouse gas emissions as well as a clear need to protect biodiversity and food security, the Queensland coal industry is undergoing unprecedented expansion.

See for yourself what the Queensland Government is planning for this wonderfully productive area.

Farmers and environmentalists are fighting to stop what could easily become a massive environmental disaster as coal and gas companies threaten to turn one of the country's prime agricultural areas into an industrial wasteland.