A meeting to discuss the environmental and social risks of a proposed coal seam gas (CSG) project at Mt Mulligan was held at the Clink Theatre in Port Douglas on September 25. 

The meeting, which was attended by 67 people, was organised by the Douglas branch of CSG Free North Queensland, a community association opposed to the practice of hydraulic fracturing in coal seam gas operations. 

Fracking involves pumping liquid into a mine borehole at high pressure to crack surrounding rock and free up reserves of natural gas, which is then extracted by miners on the surface. 

Critics of fracking point to research showing the practice can also contaminate underground aquifers with toxic chemicals or salt, causing huge impacts on health, the environment and agriculture on the surface.

Mantle Mining Corporation has lodged an application for exploratory mining as part of its Trafford Coal and Gas Project, focusing on a coal deposit that was also targeted by the long-defunct coal mine at Mt Mulligan, which is now a historical tourist attraction.

Mantle Mining has also signed an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) with the Djungan people, the traditional custodians of the area. 

CSG Free North Queensland Douglas branch member Bob Goodsell said the the risks behind fracking were too great for the project to proceed.

“No-one really understands the relationships between the aquifers in this region and how they are connected,” Mr Goodsell said.

“We don’t have a full understanding of which water systems the spring-fed creeks and coastal springs are coming from.

“The retired chief hydrologist of Queensland has said that 10 per cent of the boreholes a CSG miner puts down fail, and they also only have a sixty per cent recovery rate of the toxic chemicals they pump down into the bores. 

“Some aquifers also already have heavy metals or salinity in them that can be introduced and contaminate other freshwater aquifers that we rely on. 

“What we’ve seen happen in the Darling Downs is that fracking can turn farms into a grid pattern of roads and boreholes, many farms have had to just walk off their land after the frackers come in - the farmer also only has access rights to the top four inches of soil, anything below that is tied up in mineral rights by the Federal government, and once a company has been given a permit to explore, it’s very difficult to stop them from commencing full-scale mining.

“Many of the Indigenous people that have signed the ILUA with Mantle have said they felt they were misled and were not informed of the full scope of planned operations like horizontal drilling.”

Mantle Mining’s application for exploratory work is currently with the office of Mining Minister Andrew Cripps for consideration.

A documentary titled ‘Fractured Country: An Unconventional Invasion” detailing some of the impacts of fracking was shown at the meeting.

The film can be viewed here.