Agreed "Farming has and will continue to destroy 10,000 x more...

Agreed "Farming has and will continue to destroy 10,000 x more land than oil and gas and mining will".

I was told some years ago (no link but I believed it) that the area under concrete driveways in Sydney exceed to total land are occupied by open cut mines. Tangential to the topic but relevant in that land use changes, farming practices improve, mining practices improve etc. Farming marginal land - yes plenty of abandoned properties in SA & WA. I know 2 farmers at Roma who have retired based on their well compensation payments & handed the farm over to the kids to run.

CSG is not chemical fracking. One of my daughters is a "water engineer" whose job is to ensure that the water taken out of the system in mining is returned to the system at the same or better quality - that's what is required by the regulations.

Lastly, nice to see some comments from people with real experience & qualifications.