Good Post Spiro, I might further add that some of the aquifers...

Good Post Spiro,

I might further add that some of the aquifers being used by farmers in QLD are from the coal walloons, and over the past 50-60 years of pumping the slightly salty water (brackish) to feed their cattle has dropped the pressure in the coals resulting in the gas being released, hence you were able to light bores as a kid.

As for gaslands, I like how it's termed a "documentary" by some. There are even youtube video's of people asking Fox why he felt it was not important to highlight that gas was being lit from bores in the early 1900's, long before shale and csg was around. answer (i'll paraphrase) It doesn't really fit the point I was trying to portray, does it.

Anyway, the key to keeping gas from coming up lies in the well completion, not the fraccing. Do you think we would have to have invented such large scale fraccing techniques if we could actually frac 3 kilometers? The answer is no. They frac the heck out of shale because they have to, otherwise no flow. The concern is not how far the frac will go and what damage, it's more like, how can we make it go further.