News

Community are welcoming the end of a long and tiring assessment process which has seen lives placed on hold for many years. The Narrabri Gas Project Independent Planning Commission decision has announced that the 850+ well coal seam gasfield in Narrabri will proceed. Today’s decision is not a reflection of the community’s expectations around controversial mining projects that have not been proven to be safe. A diverse range of people including Traditional Owners, farmers, landowners, conservationists, community groups and water protectors have stood strong against the approval of the Narrabri Gas Project for…continue reading →

While we await the decision of the NSW Independent Planning Commission on whether or not to approve Santos' Narrabri Gas Project, the Hunter Gas Pipeline is trying to ram a path through the Liverpool Plains to Queensland under the pretext of COVID-19 economic recovery. With promises of taxpayer funding to develop the unpopular gas pipeline, promoter Garbis Simonian thinks his day has come. But things were not so promising for Simonian until the pandemic changed the fortunes of Hunter Gas Pipeline, now queuing up for a handout from Scott Morrison's pro-gas government. Part…continue reading →

Part 3: In Parts One and Two, we brought you the story of businessmen Duncan Hardie, Garbis Simonian and others along with the genesis of the Hunter Gas Pipeline company in 2005 and the machinations that have taken place since then to establish a 600mm diameter cross border gas transmission pipeline connecting Queensland’s Wallumbilla Gas Hub to Newcastle. Duncan Hardie was an influential serial land and fossil fuel speculator from New Zealand, and founding Chairman of the NSW Urban Taskforce, who had claimed that he and three other proponents would finance the build…continue reading →

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 →

I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the country we are gathered on here today. I pay my respects to Elders, past, present and emerging. Thankyou to the Commission for this opportunity to present my evidence on behalf of NWPA. We are a member of the North West Alliance umbrella group. My name is Johanna Evans, I am from Kyogle and I have been searching for the truth about gasfields since 2012 when I observed a gas drilling operation 10km from my home. NWPA is a grass roots volunteer based group.…continue reading →