Waste water holding ponds, access roads, compressor stations and hundreds and hundreds of gaswells now cover hundreds of kilometres of Queensland. When the Queensland Government opened up their forests and farmland to become gasfields the damage quickly spread across the landscape like a virus.
1. Condamine State Forest and farmland, Qlds (slide bar <-> to reveal before & after)
Would you like to go visit a forest covered with access roads, gaswells and potentially leaking fugitive toxic gases and chemicals? Many of those State forests have now been turned predominantly into gasfields, hardly an ideal location for the family holiday.
2. Dalby State Forest, Qlds (slide bar <-> to reveal before & after)
The threat to NSW is urgent! Santos proposes up to 850 wells on 425 well pads over 95,000 hectares. This is more than four times the size of either of the previously approved CSG projects in NSW.
3. Braemar State Forest, Qlds (slide bar <-> to reveal before & after)
Qlds CSG gasfields had oversite slashed! The Newman government were warned that slashing funds to oversight of the controversial coal seam gas (CSG) industry in Queensland would lead to serious non-compliance and to CSG companies "gambling" with safety. They were warned that cuts would likely lead to risks of soil and water contamination and they did it anyway!
An infrared camera deployed in the Queensland gasfields has shown large volumes of methane being vented directly to the atmosphere and also raised the spectre of gas from depressurised coal seams migrating large distances to the atmosphere. All the evidence is stacking up to show that gas-fired power is at least as polluting as coal if methane leaks are taken into account.
4. Daandine State Forest, Qlds (slide bar <-> to reveal before & after)
Narelle and Nood Nothdurft bought their dream home near Chinchilla in southern Queensland, eleven years ago. It included a large house for their growing brood of 11 children and 350ha where the kids could roam freely, ride their motorbikes, climb trees and fish in the dam.
In 2005 things started to change when the coal seam gas companies began moving into the area and wanted to drill a well on the Nothdurft’s property.
The family initially thought the impact of the single gas well would be small but a year later the company came back wanting more and threatening to take the family to the Land Court if they didn't sign a land agreement.
The Nothdurfts now have seven wells dotting their property and 23ha of roads, infrastructure, pipes and cleared well pads servicing the gas wells.
5. Farmland adjacent to Kumbarilla State Forest, Qlds (slide bar <-> to reveal before & after)
