Pilliga and Narrabri - Monday 29 August

We left Coonabarabran on Monday morning and met up with Tony Pickard about 30km south of Narrabri. Tony had kindly offered to show us around some of the drilling activity by Eastern Star Gas in the Pillliga State Forest.

Tony is a font of information and has gathered a great deal of evidence about the activities in the state forest.

The Pilliga is a very significant area as a recharge area for the Great Artesian Basin and needs to be protected if we are to protect our underground water.

Eastern Star Gas have been operating in the Pilliga State Forest for a number of years and have conducted fracking there.

Tony showed us around some of the older drilling sites as we only had limited time. A full tour would have taken many hours. We were appalled at what we saw.

Unlined evaporation pond

Introduced weeds on a drilling pad

Tony and Julie

Impact "downstream" of an unlined evaporation pond

The impacts on the forest were appalling. Leaching from the unlined ponds had killed trees and ground grasses. You could see the extent of the impact - it was like a "tide line". One side of the line (right up to it) had healthy grasses and trees ... the other side had bare earth and dead trees.

After we left Tony we met up with Bevan O'Regan in Narrabri. Bevan is 79 years old and is a strong opponent of coal seam gas exploration and extraction. A long term Councillor on Narrabri Shire Council, he is a lone voice on the Council. Narrabri is one of the only councils out this way that supports the coal seam gas industry.

After meeting with Bevan we headed off into the "wild west" at Burren Junction.

It was inspiring to see the great commitment from these two men fighting very much a lone battle against the monolithic Eastern Star Gas.

Cheers
Michael & Julie