They announced plans at the end of April 2002 for a joint development of the gas field with the local electricity company, Country Energy.

The current plan is to build two 3MW natural gas-fired generators ‘near the Coonarah gas field’. These could supply enough power for about 6,000 homes. If more gas is found at Coonarah or nearby, there could also be a gas pipeline to Narrabri.

Poisoning at Bohena
This is not however the gas field that Premier Bob Carr called the “Biggest Gas Discovery in NSW” in October 1999 — that is a few kilometres south at Bohena in the Pilliga East State Forest, which now consists only of a series of bulldozed, creeping salt scalds poisoning the forest.

The dead trees and black syrupy puddles mark the site of an attempt by a North American group, First Sourcenergy, to harness 'coalbed methane'. The most worrying feature of this new type of gas field is that all the ground water must be taken out before the gas will start to flow. In the Camden area, south of Sydney, this water is either sprayed on the grazing land, or, if it is too salty, it is either diluted until it meets the regulations, or is used to spray the network of dirt roads.

In the Pilliga, however, the brine was about four times saltier than that near Camden. Instead it was dumped into unlined pits dug in the sandy soil. For the past 18 months or more, this salt-laden liquid has been seeping through the subsoil with a shocking effect on the natural bushland in its path.

This invisible menace is not affected by the new cattle-proof regulation fences around several of the sites. Gas and mineral exploration in NSW is controlled by the Department of Mineral Resources, who have monotonously maintained that their regulations are not out of date, and that there is no conflict of interest in simultaneously encouraging and policing this work.

MIKE ATKINSON
is a mining consultant and a member of NPA

Farewell to David

NPA farewells Western Woodlands Officer, David Paull, after 20 months in the position. David is taking time out to complete his PhD thesis. NPA values David’s contribution to the project through his passion for the future of the western woodlands, his regular networking with regional conservation interests and his strong scientific knowledge of the central western woodlands.