Two weeks ago, farmers in northern New South Wales turned up on a Sunday to blockade Santos from conducting seismic testing for gas next to prime agricultural country on the highly fertile land of the Liverpool Plains.
Santos called in the police and the trucks were let through after a six-hour standoff.
The following day, 80-year-old Quirindi farmer Colleen Wills received a call from Santos. The company was requesting an access agreement for work on the Hunter gas pipeline project, which was approved 14 years ago in 2009. Other landholders have also heard from Santos in recent months.
A few days later, Colleen received a letter from the company, seen by Guardian Australia, offering $2,500 to cover both compensation and legal advice to sign a pipeline survey agreement, on the famed “black soil plains”. In return, Santos could scope out the route for the pipeline.
On current valuations, farming country around there is worth about $2,000 an acre for cattle land and up to $10,000 an acre for highly developed irrigation country. Colleen’s son Peter Wills said the compensation was laughable.
To be clear, Liverpool Plains farmers are fighting against two different projects, both owned by Santos: one is the right to explore for gas and the other is to build the Hunter gas pipeline project that Santos acquired in August 2022.
To get that pipeline built, the company must negotiate access with all the landholders along the route. That means if Santos does not get a landholder to sign their agreement, it defaults back to the NSW government’s authority to survey rules, which the company has described as a “last resort”. Farmers say that access will be “fraught” given landholders can just lock the gate.
The thing that makes this battle fascinating is the unusual unity and the longstanding political maturity of these communities. These farms are big assets as the world hungers for agricultural land to grow food.
And the local debate over whether the land is used for mining or agriculture is becoming multigenerational. There is evidence that more young adults are returning to the land. Children who stood in the early community blockades over coal and gas are now taking up the fights of their parents.
These are some of the same community groups that saw off BHP’s Caroona coal project and the Chinese state-owned coal company Shenhua’s plans for an open cut mine.
Liverpool Plains landholders include National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson, NSW Farmers Association president Xavier Martin and the Walhallow Local Aboriginal Land Council. Walhallow chief executive Jason Allan is also on the Liverpool Plains shire council that opposes gas exploration in the area. These people know how political systems work.
However, Santos has yet to fully flesh out their plans for the Liverpool Plains. In 2018, as reported by Jamieson Murphy, Santos boss Kevin Gallagher told a shareholder meeting: “We have no plans to drill wells in the Liverpool Plains.” There has been little said by the company since then. Santos did not respond to Guardian Australia’s questions.
Speaking this week, Simson said seismic testing was a sign that Santos was “moving on” from their previous public position.
“We engaged fully and properly in the [NSW planning] process, because we thought the process was flawed. And now 15 years later, it seems that it’s all back to square one,” Simson told Guardian Australia.
“And that’s why people like me, who have been engaged for 15 years, they’re getting really angry.
“We’ve had weasel words from the [NSW] government particularly, but from all sides of politics have let us down here on the plains.”
When the NSW Coalition government paid Shenhua $100m in 2021 to walk away, the then deputy premier and Nationals leader John Barilaro told 2GB: “This is about banning and ending any chance of mining on the Liverpool Plains.”
The Walhallow Local Aboriginal Land Council owns country on the Liverpool Plains. Jason Allan, a Walhallow Gamilaroi man, said the land council would complete its consultations, but they have heard a lot of promises.
“They can give you guarantees to the cows come home, but when the cows do come home, what’s left there?” Allan said.
“Both Shenhua and the BHP mine were both going to be on our traditional lands. Look, we had open dialogue, especially with BHP, but we’re not anti-mining or anti anything. We’re just anti-cultural destruction and with one comes the other.”
Samantha McCulloch, the chief executive of the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, said the oil and gas industry has a long history of working constructively with landholders, and the delays caused by activists demonstrated a need for a “clear runway for investment”.
“We have seen long-running unnecessary delays in approvals for new fields such as Narrabri as well as misinformation spread by anti-gas activists,” McCulloch said.
She said investing in new supply will “put downward pressure on prices and deliver other benefits like jobs and emissions reductions”.
The problem for Santos is the “activists” are the local landholders. And they are drawing neighbours together and organising community events like the Save The Plains concert later this month, aimed at informing people of their rights.
Other communities will be watching because if the people of the plains don’t win this fight, with their resources and political savvy, it would be very hard for many other communities to muster such support. Not many places have their firepower.