Month: August 2020

Part Two “…it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”Charles Dickens In Part One we detailed the history behind the formation of Macquarie Energy and Apollo Gas and the emergence of pipeline promoters Duncan Hardie and Garbis Simonian. In 2004, the NSW Government abandoned a plan to build a Gas Transmission Pipeline from Wallumbilla, QLD to Newcastle, to bring gas from QLD to NSW. This was following research undertaken under the portfolios of Craig Knowles (Minister for Infrastructure and Planning and Minister for Natural Resources, 2003-2005). However in July…continue reading →

Part One We present to you a three part story on the long history behind the Queensland Hunter Gas Pipeline (QHGP), an 833km, 600mm wide gas transmission pipeline, initially capable of transporting 85 petajoules increasing to 120+ petajoules, proposed to go from Newcastle, NSW to Wallumbilla, Queensland and affecting approximately 500 landowners over 1,250 plus land parcels. “It was the best of ideas. It was the worst of ideas.” Apologies to Charles Dickens. In September 2005 two like-minded businessmen joined with two others to create Macquarie Energy Pty Ltd. Each held a 20%…continue reading →

Santos lodged a last minute submission to the Independent Planning Commission taking community members by surprise and forcing them back to their desks to scramble to respond in the one week allotted. This late maneuver has been called out as everything from desperation to characteristic disregard. Santos stated in their new submission, Executive Summary: Santos has relied upon the best available science, expert research and opinion in our application to develop the Narrabri Gas Project so that the community can be confident it will not harm people, water resources or the environment. Screenshot…continue reading →

On 03.04.20 Santos applied to vary their Environmental Protection Licence (EPL20350) to all but decommission several water monitoring bores in their network, removing their ‘requirement to monitor’ and provide those results to the EPA and the public. This variation application went unnoticed for several weeks and is still pending. It concerns monitoring bore(s) that have demonstrated levels of methane, in at least one of the bores the raised methane levels are claimed to have been caused by termites (see excerpt from Santos Ground Water Monitoring Report, Annual Return 2017/2018 dated June 2018 below).…continue reading →

Roy Butler, Member of Parliament for the seat of Barwon in NSW, was interviewed by Anna Christie on Friday 24 July, Day 5 of the Narrabri Gas Project's Independent Planning Commission Hearing.  They discussed community opposition, gas prices, local jobs and the NSW Government's rush to defeat the CSG Moratorium Bill. Anna Christie: Roy, I don’t know if you were listening but on Day 1 Councillor Stephen Lawrence, the Deputy Mayor of Dubbo City Council, was speaking at the hearing and he made the comment that even though it may not be within…continue reading →