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WAGE News

Mining taking over Tayglen Station

Date: 09-Jan-12
Author: Kim Honan (ABC Rural)
Dysart was cattle country before it became a mining town back in the 1970s.

The Utah Development Company bought farmland from two stations to establish a service centre for the nearby Norwich and Saraji coal mines.

Ted Murphy is a third generation grazier and now runs Tayglen Station.

"Probably two thirds or three quarters of the area that Dysart footprint sits on was Tayglen and the other area was Dysart Station," he said.

His grandfather drew the block in a ballot back in the 1950s.

"It was a ballot block, part of Cotherstone Station, and then my father took it over in '73 and then I took it over it '89 and hopefully my sons will take it over," he said.

McNamara applauds CSG review

Date: 09-Jan-12
Author: Troy Kippen (Northern Star)
A CAMPAIGNER against coal seam gas in the Tweed has applauded the government's decision to review royalty arrangements with energy companies.

Under NSW Government legislation, coal seam gas companies had a five-year royalty-free period to help establish the industry in the state.

Northern Rivers coal seam gas campaigner and Lock the Gate Alliance committee member Michael McNamara said the group had always welcomed any steps taken in the right direction by government no matter how small.

"The royalty-free period has always been a problem and it is good that it is being reviewed," Mr McNamara said.

The Effects of Coal Seam Gas mining In Australia

Date: 09-Jan-12
Author: Clean Green Australia
The mining of Coal Seam Gas in Australia is a very heated and much-debated topic.

Films such as Gasland have helped propel the issue to the world wide stage, and now with major mining companies around Australia relentlessly pursuing coal seam gas, even going so far as to potentially drill exploration wells in city suburbs such as Sydney's St Peters, the topic has attracted much attention from the public, politicians, and miners themselves.

Environmentalism threatens CSG supply, prices

Date: 09-Jan-12
Author: Business Spectator
Environmental opposition to the growth of Australia's coal seam gas (CSG) industry is a threat to the security of the gas supply at the same time as the nation is becoming more reliant on CSG as a cleaner source of energy, according to The Australian.

Coal seam gas debate

Date: 09-Jan-12
Author: Joanna Woodburn (ABC Rural)
The potential risks of coal seam gas exploration are at the heart of the debate between the industry and farmers about whether it should proceed.

Companies say they're abiding by best practice and need the data gathered at this stage to determine whether production is viable in New South Wales.

Report exposes huge shortfall in funds to fix mess left behind by miners

Date: 09-Jan-12
Author: Nicole Hasham (SMH)
Toxic abandoned mines require a massive clean-up, for which state budget funding is "substantially inadequate", a report has revealed.

The NSW landscape is scarred by thousands of hectares of degraded land where companies have walked away from more than 500 mines without cleaning up or stabilising the sites.

An Auditor-General's report late last month found that as ownership of mine sites reverts to the Crown, clean-ups may be the government's "largest category of contamination liability".

Mayor puts mining ban on agenda

Date: 09-Jan-12
Author: Geoff Egan (Qld Times)
ONLY weeks after the Scenic Rim called for the State Government to rescind mining permits, the Mayor of the Somerset Regional Council is calling for a moratorium into the industry in the Brisbane Valley.

Somerset Mayor Graeme Lehmann will be proposing the moratorium at next week's council meeting with the intention of becoming the first Queensland council to ban coal mining and coal seam gas extraction.

Cr Lehmann said he would be calling for the ban following community concern.

Calamity or opportunity? A town decides on coal-seam gas

Date: 09-Jan-12
Author: Amos Aikman (The Australian)
IN the corner of a paddock, on a broad plain clad with some of the most fertile soil in the country, sits a small patch of disturbed ground.
Behind it runs a strip of blue hills of great beauty, and beneath is buried a narrow drill hole sampling a resource that miners claim could deliver more than $15 billion to the flagging NSW economy.

There is little to see now of the coal-seam gas exploration well outside Narrabri in the state's northeast. When the drillers visited former champion St George rugby league player Robin Gourley's 3200ha property last year they were "no trouble at all".

Warning CSG backlash to hit supply, prices

Date: 09-Jan-12
Author: Sid Maher and Lauren Wilson (The Australian)
THE environmental backlash against the development of Australia's coal-seam gas industry is a threat to the security of the gas supply just as the nation becomes more reliant on the fuel to provide a cleaner source of power.
An assessment of Australia's energy security has warned that environmental challenges faced by the CSG sector could restrict future production and force a downgrade of the nation's gas supply security from "moderate" to "low".

The National Energy Security Assessment says "environmental challenges" could restrict future production and there "are risks that could materialise as negative influences".

Watching the watchers watching NSW North Coast concerned citizen groups

Date: 08-Jan-12
Author: Blogotariat
It would appear that the Australian Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon (like her predecessor) is rather interested in protests which may be occurring around Australia.
Of course that also means that from time to time she is interested in concerned citizens living on the NSW North Coast.

More scrutiny of the Pilliga forest CSG project: tar-like substances found around exploration sites

Date: 07-Jan-12
Author: Kate Ausburn
The coal seam gas project in the Pilliga is copping scrutiny from all angles as environmental groups, the Greens, the state government, and even the current operator take a closer look at project.

Speaking with Santos spokesperson Matthew Doman yesterday he acknowledged recent media attention focused on the CSG operation in the Pilliga and said that the company was in the process of reviewing all of the projects that came along with the acquisition of Eastern Star Gas in November. Doman said that the review process is a priority and that changes would be made "where we find practices that aren't consistent with Santos' manner."

Brown slams surveillance of green activists

Date: 07-Jan-12
Author: ABC News
Greens leader Bob Brown has accused Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson of turning Australia into a police state, after reports he pushed for increased surveillance of environmental activists.

A report in Fairfax newspapers details documents, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, that show Mr Ferguson requested additional monitoring of anti-coal mining groups and other environmental groups.

NSW Government reviewing CSG royalty payments

Date: 07-Jan-12
Author: Jacinta Green
The recent announcement by the NSW Government that they are reviewing the legislation that gives coal seam gas companies a 5 year royalty free period and sees them not paying the full royalty payments until the tenth year of production is cautiously welcomed by Lock the Gate Alliance as a step in the right direction, but long overdue.

Conservation Groups under Federal Government Surveillance

Date: 07-Jan-12
Author: Jacinta Green
Lock the Gate Alliance says that today's revelations today that Martin Ferguson has been pushed by the energy industry to increase surveillance of environmental activists, is more evidence that the fossil fuel sector is really running Australia.

Spies eye green protesters

Date: 07-Jan-12
Author: Philip Dorling (SMH)
A FEDERAL government minister has pushed for increased police surveillance of environmental activists peacefully protesting at coal-fired power stations and coal export facilities.

Documents released to The Saturday Age under freedom-of-information laws reveal that federal police are continually monitoring anti-coal mining groups, and other environmental bodies.