chinchilla news article

This is the front page article from the local paper, "Chinchilla News". I didn’t feel like typing out the whole article, but I’ve included all the interesting stuff. Mayor is finally speaking positively of UCG, and QLD Gov. is starting to pay attention – I suspect we will see defined mineral/petroleum tenements shortly! :)


1400 Jobs Gone In A Single Day

Fourteen hundred jobs walked out of Chinchilla last Wednesday.

Linc Energy bailed out of its $1 billion liquid fuels plant less than a year before 1000 workers were to arrive for four years of construction.

Dalby Regional Mayor Ray Brown said the decision was a big blow to the region.
“You don’t like seeing this happening to anyone, especially someone who invests such a substantial amount of money and employment into the region” he said.

Deputy Premier Paul Lucas admitted the complexity of over-lapping tenements had delayed a decision from the State Government.
“What we want to do is get it right” he said.
“Now if it doesn’t suit people because we’re taking time to get it right I apologise for that”.

Mr Lucas said coal seam gas and other UCG projects would take up the slack left by Linc’s departure.

Cr Brown said the State Government had failed the Surat Basin because the legal cloud over petroleum interests had not been dealt with fast enough.

“The state needs to make their minds up; where the petroleum tenements are and give a defined boundary,” he said.

“They need to rule these up very quickly otherwise we’re going to get an exodus of mining companies from our region because they’re not assured of what their resources are.”