AS the State Government experts were tangled in microphone cable, it was all too apparent the panel had come ill-prepared.
The table lined with Department of Environment and Resources Management public servants, scientists and Queensland Sustainability Minister Kate Jones faced more than 100 frustrated South Burnett locals at a recent public forum.
The convoy from the capital had rolled into Kingaroy to inform locals that Cougar Energy had not provided the information required for a full environmental evaluation, and the company's underground coal gasification trial in the region would remain suspended.
But as rain pelted the town hall roof, no-one could hear Ms Jones make her announcement. In fact, the audience became increasingly frustrated and repeatedly called for the panel to speak up.
Residents stood to raise their issues - including 36 points pre-prepared by the Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group (KCCG) - but no-one could hear the answers. The Sustainability Minister must have had super hearing compared to the others - she repeatedly said she heard the locals concerns and would discuss them with her cabinet colleagues.
After an hour of this, a microphone was sourced from a local Catholic college. The relieved crowd cheered and clapped wildly.
The experts spent the second half of the meeting repeatedly wrapped and tangled in the cables as they passed the microphone up and down the table.
The panel also stumbled their way through the political and legal minefield that has become the Cougar Energy debacle, with one expert scientist even admitting he didn't want to work on the UCG project in the first place.
Overall, no new information was provided to the public and scientific explanation was limited.
It was a messy meeting and the whole episode would have been comical if what they were discussing did not leave a region's future on a knife edge.
Kingaroy residents have still not received a straight answer from the government as to why such an experimental mining process was trialled so close to their farms and townships.
The UCG trial and the resulting fallout from the water contamination scare has left the region concerned about the future of tourism, property prices, business viability and health, according to South Burnett Mayor David Carter.
Cr Carter said the State Government should be taking a more active role in addressing the social impact on Kingaroy residents' morale, including providing financial and emotional counselling.
"The town is still angry - people don't feel they are getting any new information. You've almost got to guess what is happening," he said. "It has had a serious impact and I don't think the government agencies have taken enough notice of that. Some people are very fragile and under pressure, and are finding it almost too much to bear."
Kingaroy organic dairy farmers Mark and Pamela Comello have directly felt the fallout from the contamination scare.
With an excellent season following years of difficulty, they should be celebrating their good fortune.
Instead they are working to keep their existing clients following a series of phone calls inquiring whether their area was inside the contaminated zone.
The farm is more than 12km from the UCG trial site, yet the mere association of their business with Kingaroy has sullied their business' reputation. The pair said they already knew of one family that now refuses to purchase any more products for fear of contamination.
"I don't think we would have had the same reaction if we had Nanango and not Kingaroy as the business location on our milk cartons," Mrs Comello said.
To turn this negative tide, the couple spent $200 to have their water independently tested. They received the results late last week, giving them the all clear.
"It has gotten to the stage where people don't believe the mining companies," Mr Comello said. "They say the water is safe to drink because the toxicity levels are below world standards, but people want to know nothing is in the water."
A little closer to Kingaroy, yet still well outside the affected zone is organic vegetable farmer and KCCG member Evan Blanch. With five young children, he joined the fight to ensure he had the option of passing his property to the next generation.
"There are a lot of people's energies being put into fighting this," he said. "We have to be very careful our land does not get labelled as toxic. What then?"
KCCG secretary John Dalton said with the government grappling with the fallout from the contamination scare, the Cougar Energy site was "on the ropes".
"Do we just lock it up and no-one can use it anymore? You want to leave the land a little more sustainable than when you found it. This goes against everything the farmer does."
"No one can see how the State Government could justify reopening the plant. It would have to be a pretty compelling piece of scientific data.
"The government is playing catch up. They were late off the mark and now they're reacting to something they started and it's galloping ahead of them."
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