Qld protesters stage gas blockade

14 Mar 2011, 7:05 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Protesters say they're willing to put their bodies on the line for weeks to save their land and homes from a coal-seam gas development west of Brisbane.

Protesters have accused the company planning a pipeline through their rural residential community near Tara of breaching Queensland's criminal law.

A letter delivered to the Queensland Gas Company (QGC) said its plans constitute "common nuisance" under section 230 of Queensland's criminal code.

"We ask the police to investigate the criminal offence of common nuisance," the letter said.

The protesters, who plan to blockade the pipeline when it emerges from land controlled by the QGC company, owned by British Gas, will also ask the state's attorney-general for an injunction and damages under the common law for committing public nuisance.

Tara Estates resident Michael Bretherick said the protesters were willing to put their bodies on the line for weeks to save their land and homes from a coal-seam gas development west of Brisbane.

"There's no way that we will stop," Mr Bretherick said of the blockade.

"We cannot stop - they are not going to crap on our families and if we stop they crap on our families."

Up to 70 protesters gathered at Tara on Monday and they included two traditional owners opposed to CSG mining, Mr Bretherick said.

Some protesters have climbed trees near a key access road, holding banners saying "Don't gas Tara".

Others including farmers, landowners and green groups rallied outside the company's Tara and Chinchilla offices and the Kenya gas field office.

The QGC group is due to begin work this week on the 16-kilometre pipeline which will take gas from existing wells on QGC and private land to the company's plant nearby.

QGC says almost half of the pipeline will be on its own land, and the 14 landholders directly affected have agreed to compensation packages for disturbance to their properties.

The company's senior vice-president Jim Knudsen said in a statement on Monday the company understands residents were concerned about leaking gas wells and the impact on groundwater.

"But people should know that none of our wells are unsafe or a risk to people or the environment," Mr Knudsen said.

"A leaking well featured on a recent television program had been fixed and other wells with extremely minor leaks were now being fixed."

Mr Knudsen said QGC's operations might have a minor impact on water tables and this was being monitored.

But Friends of the Earth spokesman Drew Hutton said landowners were concerned QGC intended to build hundreds of gas wells in the area.

They were also worried about the impact on their health, lifestyles, the environment and land values, Mr Hutton said.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said those planning demonstrations had a right to protest and coal-seam gas companies had a responsibility to reassure them about the safety of CSG extraction.

"This new industry offers Queensland an unprecedented opportunity for renewed prosperity, but we need to make sure that we get all of it right and protect the environment at the same time," Ms Bligh told reporters in Toowoomba.

"We will continue to work with the gas companies and we expect them to keep working with the community.

"They have a job to do to work with these people and to make sure that they are reassuring them of the safety of this industry and that's what I expect to see the gas companies do."

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