IT will be remembered as the week Arrow Energy stole the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Overshadowed by protester blockades and landholder disputes with Queensland Gas Company, Arrow Energy had often managed to fly somewhat under the radar as it swiftly expanded its gasfield and infrastructure development across the Darling Downs.
However, news came at the weekend that 13 farming families from the Save Our Darling Downs group had launched legal action in the State Land Court against the company’s environmental licence to operate.
The farmers will challenge the State Government decision to allow coal seam gas exploration and activities on productive and irrigated black soils, claiming the conditions for water, soil and lifestyle set by the Department of Environment and Resource Management are inadequate.
The legal challenge has the support of the National Farmers Federation, which has opened its ‘fighting fund’ coffers to finance the legal action.
It is a battle many farmers across Queensland will keenly watch as they struggle in their own regions to strike a balance between agriculture tradition and the rapid expansion of mining.
A win for the farmers could establish a precedent which could assist other agriculture regions in challenging mining and gas development in their communities.
Just hours after news of the legal action broke, Arrow was again in the headlines, with their workers frantically scrambling to repair a burst gas well on a cattle and grain property, west of Dalby.
When the media packs swarmed on the area, frustrated landholders revealed the succession of other leakages the region has struggled with in the years since Arrow first rolled into town.
The pressure is now on the Queensland Government to justify its own actions to “find the balance” following the NSW Government’s announcement that it will place a 60-day freeze on all new coal, petroleum and CSG activities while attempts are made to solve the existing disputes between farmers and miners.
Frustrated landholders will be given the opportunity to face decision-makers at Arrow Energy, with the company scheduled to host community information sessions across the Darling Downs in the following days.
Save Our Darling Downs spokesperson Graham Clapham said the protection of the “intensively farmed black soils” and alluvium aquifers was critical to ensuring agriculture had a future in South East Queensland.
“We are under no illusions of the size of the task we have undertaken – it will be quite difficult to challenge the conditions set down by the government,” he said. “But the environmental assets are important to use in terms of our businesses and lifestyle. Protecting those assets is non-negotiable.”
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