Qld residents share gas stories

Several Queensland residents made their way to Kyogle on Tuesday night to share their stories and show solidarity with local groups opposing plans for a gas pipeline from Casino to Ipswich.

Dalby landowner Brian Monk drove for five hours to address people who had turned up for the town hall meeting.

“My 5000 acre property is surrounded by gas wells and I can hear the noise from their operation all the time,” Mr Monk said. “The company is dumping the saline produced water from gas wells along roadsides with tankers to get rid of it. They want to put a compressor station just two kilometres away that would vent toxic fumes day and night and then I'd never be able to sell my property. This is what could happen in your area if this pipeline goes ahead, we have found that where the pipelines go, gas wells follow.”

Organisers say a turnout of around 150 people shows the community is deeply concerned about the proposed Lions Way pipeline.

Scott Collins, a resident of the Tara residential estate south of Chinchilla in Queensland, where landholders have staged in a four-month long blockade to stop construction of a gas pipeline, also addressed the meeting, as did Innes Larkin from the ‘Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic' group and Cassie McMahon from Friends of the Earth, who is also an Ipswich resident.

Other speakers included local environmental scientist Boudicca Cerese and Paul Hobbs from the Kyogle Gas Action Group.

Lynch's Creek resident and dairy farmer Leslie McQueen closed the meeting with a plea to local residents not to let the gas pipeline go ahead in the region.

“I just want my children to have the life I did growing up,” she said, “with beautiful clean creeks to enjoy and working hard and living happily on the land.”