Eve Jeffery
After hitchhiking for four days from Broken Hill, 29-year-old Peter Humphriss used superglue to stick on to the Santos offices in Narrabri at around 9am this morning in an effort to highlight the coal seam gas work that is being done in the area.
The 850-well Narrabri Gas Project and the construction of the Leewood facility, which is designed to treat up to one million litres of coal seam gas wastewater and then use it to irrigate crops on site, is a cause for serious concern to the people in the region and others who are worried about underground water.
This is Peter’s first action in support of the land. He says he is distressed by the destruction of the area and water – he fears a future where his kids will not be able to safely live.
Peter, a truckie and father of two, along with 10 other protectors who stuck-on, says he feels strongly about the damage being done to the waters of Great Artesian Basin, which is one of the largest underground water reservoirs in the world.
The message from the protectors today is: we are sticking around.
UPDATE
At 9.20am four police staff lead by Senior Constable Peter Hartley arrived at the office to ask the protectors to move on, which they did.
‘We understand what you are doing here’, he said to a rep from the group. ‘But we have to ask you to move on.’
Mr Humphriss was approached by police as soon as they arrived at the office. ‘When the police arrived they asked me to remove myself from the doorway. He [Constable Hartley] was very polite, so I unstuck my fingers from the window. I was happy that the message I was trying to push had come across.’
‘I was quite confident when I stuck-on’, said Peter after he left the site. ‘I feel the action we did would have a strong effect on highlighting the destruction of the great artesian basin.’
The protectors cleared the site by 9.30am and moved to their next protest location.
And the Byron Echo is broke and the town of Byron and its Council has no money because it panders to the people with no money.
GOOD LUCK!
Now if you want someone to market the place, I know someone.
Meanwhile just keep rubbing two pennies together.
It could cause some heat.
That’s because they don’t sell out and are true to their values.
Interesting, if ill-informed, opinion Mr Heggarty.
The CSG industry is going hell bent for leather to extract what they can to sell gas at the world price, which is much higher than the domestic price.
The domestic price is lower because Australia already has an excess of domestic supply. The recent financial press commentary about rise of Australian gas prices places the cause in only one place :- The gas export industry. Now that we are starting to export gas the domestic market is starting to be forced to pay the world price. This will directly impact local industry. Reports from Australian banks and conservative price watchdogs tell us that this increased price will put many Australian industries under threat of closure due to the higher production costs associated with the resulting increased gas bills.
Sorry Mr Heggarty, but it would appear you have been ill-informed by propaganda that comes directly from an industry that cares not one fig for the Australian economy.
There is also an environmental argument against CSG, but I think that is too obvious and well reported for me to need to repeat it in this forum.
Ahh, Len. It’s good to see that the same values system that is destroying the economic system and the planet is alive and well in Byron. But of course – that’s why so many wealthy come to Byron – to live the good life of materialism.
Strange that it was the hippies and the alternative people who opened up Byron to the wealthy who have now destroyed the values they ostensibly came for. Now they’ve been pushed out by the rates based on the money the ‘new’ people are prepared to spend.
Len – the real values should be environment and people before profits. Yes, I agree our system needs money and growth to function – but its the system that’s wrong. Infinite growth is impossible – so where do we draw the line??