Lock the Gate Alliance call on Queensland LNP government to honour promise to protect the Murray Darling Basin

Lock the Gate Alliance say they will continue to fight against Arrow Energy’s Surat Gas Project expansion to protect the region’s groundwater.

Environmental group Lock the Gate Alliance has called on the newly-elected LNP government to protect the Murray Darling Basin from coal seam gas drilling.

The newly-elected Queensland LNP government is being urged to meet its election promise and protect the Murray Darling Basin from coal seam gas drilling.

In the lead up to the state election LNP Condamine MP Pat Weir promised that if elected they would make it necessary for gas companies to prove “beyond any reasonable doubt” that their project would not impact the Murray Darling Basin’s shallow aquifer which sustains the food bowl of the Cecil Plains and Dalby districts.

Arrow Energy is currently considering its final investment decision for the next stage of the Surat Gas Project, which would involve the drilling of hundreds of new coal seam gas wells in the Cecil Plains and Nangwee districts, taking it east of the Condamine River for the first time.

In a press release Lock the Gate Alliance spokesman Nick Holliday said it was vital they protected the region’s groundwater.

“The reality is that coal seam gas drilling depletes aquifers and poses an inherent contamination risk to groundwater,” he said.

“The Condamine Alluvium is so invaluable to this farming region – its vitality, its rich agricultural production and economic prosperity.

“It must be protected from gas mining which undeniably threatens its ongoing integrity. If the alluvium were to be compromised, it would adversely alter the future of the Darling Downs forever.”

Save Our Darling Downs

In March this year, dozens of farming families across the Darling Downs united to declare their properties, which now cover more than 30,000ha, “gas field free” including Cecil Plains farmer Liza Balmain who previously told The Chronicle the policy change was a step in the right direction.

“We were very encouraged by the LNP’s position at the candidates forum promising better protection for the prime agricultural land overlying the Condamine Alluvium from the impacts of coal seam gas mining,” she said.

“On the Darling Downs we grow cotton, sorghum, chickpeas, wheat, and other grains and legumes that feed and clothe Queensland and the world, all underpinned by the precious Condamine Alluvium, which is threatened by the gas industry’s intentions to drill hundreds of gas wells through its core.”

In the press release Mr Holliday said the community would continue pushing back against Arrow Energy.

“This is the power of local-led resistance. Farmers whose properties cover more than 30,000ha are united against this multinational petroleum company and declared their properties gas field free,” he said.

“Arrow Energy relinquished its gas tenements in the Scenic Rim in 2022 following sustained community opposition, and we look forward to seeing Arrow’s incompatible tenements disappear from the government’s maps in this critically important Queensland food bowl as well.”