More than fifty people shut down access to AGL’s controversial fracking site at Gloucester in NSW on Saturday, saying the state government’s new ‘Gas Plan’ has ‘thrown the fractured community under the wheels of the gas industry’.
There are five separate protest sites, and people from Gloucester, the Manning Valley, the Hunter region, Sydney and the northern rivers are calling for more people to join the protest.
The protesters used various means to lock the gates of AGL’s site, and prevent the fracking convoy from entering.
Gloucester farmer Ed Robinson was at the protest and said, ‘The government has loudly and clearly told the people of my community that they won’t impose any additional restrictions on AGL to bring them up to the new standards they’ve announced this week for coal seam gas industry.
‘There are around 100 people living within 2km of this fracking site right now, who will be exposed to the harmful pollutants gas wells release into the air.
‘Without support or protection from the Government, we’re going to have to protect ourselves, and we’re deeply grateful to people from out of town that have come to help us.’