Drill rigs give grazier that sinking feeling

BRIAN Cameron doesn't trust what he's been told about his slowing water bores, and he likes it even less that CSG is on his doorstep.

Anne and Brian Cameron

BRIAN Cameron doesn't trust what he's been told about his slowing water bores, and he likes it even less that coal-seam gas and coalmining are literally on his doorstep.

The third-generation grazier had hoped that he would ease into retirement on his 3600ha cattle run, Waikola, 90 minutes' drive from Roma in southern Queensland.

But the arrival of gas and coal exploration crews in his fertile corner of Brigalow Country, 400km west of Brisbane, put paid to that.

Now, like many others in the area, Mr Cameron and his wife Anne are uncertain of what the future will bring.

A neighbouring property has 19 gas wells on it, and the trucks and rigs rumble past all day, every day, kicking up clouds of dust that settle on their pastures.

An exploration crew from multinational mining house Xstrata has been at work near their back paddock, pegging out what they have been told is a site for a future open-cut coalmine.

And the people from Origin Energy are negotiating with Mr Cameron's solicitor to sink up to 11 CSG wells on his land. If he could find a buyer, he probably couldn't afford to sell because property values have halved since the miners turned up, he says.

"We're not really sure what's going on," he told The Australian yesterday. "You've got to squeeze the hell out of (the companies) to get anything out of them. One day they are talking about nine wells on your land, and the next thing you find out it's really 11 . . . you feel like you are the last to know what's happening."

Mr Cameron, 68, said his biggest worry was his water supply. He relies on bores and the flow from one 100m-deep well has slowed to 7000 litres an hour from 9500 litres and hour.

Mr Cameron said he didn't know whether it was due to a natural fall in the water table, or the impact of CSG extraction.

"It might be a coincidence that this happened when these things started up," he said. "It's been shockingly dry, I suppose, and that might have something to do with it. But it is a big drop and you have to wonder why."

Mr Cameron said he had had the bores tested so he had baseline data if there was a quality issue down the track. The company had promised it would "take care" of any problems, but he's not convinced.

"If they bugger the water, the land is not worth anything . . . the country would be hopeless," he said.

Ideally, Origin would buy him out or "make up the difference" on the devaluation of his property. The company's opening offer of about $2500 a well had left him deeply unimpressed. "We are going to try for as much compensation as we possibly can, because we can't stop them coming on," Mr Cameron said.