From the ABC web site Protester occupies Pilliga CSG wellBy...

From the ABC web site



Protester occupies Pilliga CSG well
By Catherine Clifford

Posted July 5, 2011 14:21:00

MAP: Pilliga 2388
Around 20 demonstrators have surrounded a coal seam gas rig in the Pilliga State Forest, west of Narrabri.

One of the protesters has suspended himself from the rig to prevent workers employed by Eastern Star Gas from operating the well.

Carmel Flint, from the Northern Inland Council for the Environment, says the protesters are trying to stop the company's plans to develop more than 550 twin wells in the pristine scrub.

"We have a protester suspended from the top of a 20-metre tall rig that has been drilling down and extracting water from deep down under the Great Artesian Basin," she said.

"Basically, we're here to protest what is the biggest coal seam gas project in NSW."

Ms Flint says the aim of the protest is to force the federal government to reject the development.

"In particular, this issue is currently before the Environment Minister Tony Burke and he will have to make a decision on this and we are asking him to reject it," she said.

"This gasfield is inappropriate and we shouldn't be destroying our best bushland for coal seam gas developments that are unsustainable, and which the community doesn't support."

Warrick Jordan, from Rising Tide Newcastle, is the man who scaled the 20-metre tower at midnight on Monday, using rock-climbing equipment.

He says he understands he could be arrested, but the issue is so important he's prepared to run that risk.

"They plan to impact around 85,000 hectares of high conversation value forest and effectively turn it into an industrial wasteland," he said.

"We have real concerns about this and we have real concerns that the infrastructure associated with this project, pipelines and so on, is going to entrench coal seam gas in the north west of the state."

Narrabri Police are currently at the scene of the coal seam gas protest.

A police spokeswoman says a number of protesters are co-operating with police.

She says crews are on scene and awaiting the arrival of further police resources.

Meantime, Eastern Star Gas says the protester has put his own life at risk, and wasted the time of local police.

The company says it is also concerned that Sydney-based political activists are driving the protest.

Mullaley farmer and chairman of Eastern Star Gas, John Anderson, says Tuesday's stunt is not helpful.

Mr Anderson says the work Eastern Star is doing is of national importance.

"The reality is that when it comes to the extraction of major resources I cannot think of something that is more environmentally-friendly, useful and appropriate than what we do at Eastern Star Gas," he said.

"It's important for the people of Narrabri and it's important for the people of Australia."


End of story

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