Leigh Creek gas mining program in the balance as Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association launches injunction battle
THE future of a contentious gas extraction project in Leigh Creek hangs in the balance, as an Aboriginal association fights for an injunction to stop it going ahead.
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THE future of a contentious gas extraction project in Leigh Creek hangs in the balance, as an Aboriginal association fights for an injunction to stop it going ahead.
The Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association has objected to the approval Leigh Creek Energy received for its underground coal gasification trial.
At a Supreme Court hearing today, Judge Graham Dart ordered the parties to return next Tuesday to discuss the case for an injunction, after further documentation was filed.
Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association chief executive Vince Coulthard told The Advertiser his group wanted to protect the area, which has been mined since the 1930s, from further harm.
“The Flinders Ranges has been hammered over the years,” Mr Coulthard said.
“It’s time for healing.”
Mr Coulthard said Yurlu, the kingfisher man, created coal through fire on his journey to Wilpena Pound, and the area around Leigh Creek held strong cultural significance to Adnyamathanha people.
“Yurlu’s story is very important to my people and we have to do what we can to protect it,” he said.
“We need to protect it in the same way as the Australian government protects the Kokoda Trail and the grounds for Gallipoli.”
Underground coal gasification involves igniting coal reserves, which produces synthetic gas that travels to the surface via wells.
The practice has been banned in Queensland, following a Linc Energy project, which resulted in that company being successfully prosecuted for causing environmental damage.
But the Department for Energy and Mining’s Energy Resources Division has deemed the geology at Leigh Creek suitable for the process.
Mr Coulthard said his association was concerned about environmental impacts, and problems with consultation in the lead-up to the project.
His association and the NSW Environmental Defenders Office have launched court action against Leigh Creek Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan.
Brendon Roberts, for Leigh Creek Energy, told the court the company planned to begin gasification works next week.
He said Leigh Creek Energy would incur losses of $50,000 per day if work did not begin by Wednesday, September 19, and costs would “increase exponentially from there”.
The Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association was notified of the works last year.
“There’s been agreement about all this dating back to October,” Mr Roberts said.
A company statement after the hearing said it was confident it would defeat the injunction application, and would seek costs and damages.
“(The company) is … excited about its project providing the struggling townships of Leigh Creek and Copley with desperately needed jobs, infrastructure and industry,” a spokesman said.
The company said it was confident it had obtained all requisite approvals for the project, and that those approvals were valid.
“The company has complied, and will continue to comply, with the requirements of South Australian government regulatory authorities in relation to the Leigh Creek Energy Project,” a spokesman said.
“While the company respects the concerns of members of the community, it does not understand there to be any factual or legal basis to sustain the claims made against it.”
