Standing between 20 hectares of wheat and a sea of Akubras and chequered shirts on Queensland’s Darling Downs, independent senator David Pocock is a long way from Canberra.
It is one of the last stops on his tour across Australia’s eastern interior, snaking his way north to Queensland’s south-east through some of the richest agricultural land in the country.
In the Pilliga forest in north-west New South Wales, he met traditional owners fighting to stop Santos’ Narrabri gas project. On the Liverpool Plains, not far from where the then-Wallabies player chained himself to a coal digger eight years ago, he listened to landowners’ concerns about the impacts of coal seam gas extraction and mining.
On the rich black soils of the Cecil Plains – a region on the Darling Downs that is classed as a priority agricultural area by the Queensland government, which accounts for less than 3% of the state’s land – Pocock sees a familiar story unfolding.
“Farmers are frustrated,” he says. “Despite them growing the food we need … they are potentially being undermined by the immediate impacts of things like coal seam gas.
“[Landowners are] really concerned about what it means to continue to expand the fossil fuel industry.”
Queensland is no stranger to fossil fuel expansion.
Across the Surat cumulative management area (CMA), which stretches hundreds of kilometres west and north-west from the Cecil Plains, there are roughly 9,000 onshore natural gas wells that have been developed over the last two decades. By 2030, there are expected to be 22,000.
As part of this expansion, Arrow Energy – a joint venture between petroleum giants Shell and PetroChina – has approval to expand farther east on to the Cecil Plains and across the Condamine River.
For many of the landowners among the hundred or so people listening in on Pocock’s address, the Condamine was once seen as a boundary the gas company would not cross.
A shifting landscape
Wesley Back grows cotton and grains on both sides of the river downstream, with gas wells nearby.
Last winter, he says, some of his land began to sink, causing part of his crop to become waterlogged and machinery to get bogged.
“We’ve had stable long-term production over my whole lifetime … now it is completely unstable [on this field],” Back says.
While Back estimates he lost 10% of his yield on a single field, he predicts subsidence will eventually occur across all of his 1,200 hectares of irrigated cropland, requiring it to be levelled again at a huge cost.
“What’s it going to look like in 70 years?” he says.
Subsidence – a known effect of coal seam gas extraction that causes the ground to subside by dozens of centimetres – can occur kilometres from gas wells, meaning landowners who don’t allow gas companies on to their properties will still be affected.
Across much of the Surat CMA’s rugged landscape, this sinking effect is forgiven – or overlooked – by landowners who run livestock and receive payouts from gas companies in exchange for hosting gas wells on their land.
But on the floodplains along the Condamine River, where the ground is laser-levelled, irrigated and sown with crops of cotton, corn, wheat and barley, some landowners say the impact of subsidence can be devastating.
“The last three years have been difficult, emotionally draining and an expensive journey,” says Zena Ronnfeldt, who spoke to Guardian Australia last year about the impact of subsidence on her land.
“Our time is wasted navigating complex legislation to work out how we can obtain compensation … it is immensely stressful and has come with horrific life cost.”
Along the Condamine River, this side-effect of gas extraction has become a galvanising force among staunch landowners who refuse to have gas wells on their land, and those who are more sympathetic to the industry and the income it provides them.
Across the Surat CMA, the water volume of more than 700 water bores is also expected to be affected by the impact of gas drilling, according to a Queensland government report, as the depressurisation of groundwater during the extraction process lowers the water table.
In 2022, Arrow Energy admitted to “mistakes” after it was fined $1m by the Queensland government for commencing deviating drilling beneath properties without notifying landowners including Ronnfeldt and Back.
Deviated drilling – where gas wells are drilled at angles instead of directly downwards – reduces Arrow Energy’s footprint on the surface, while allowing them access to coal seams underneath properties whose owners won’t allow them on the land.
‘Broken’ environmental laws
Queensland’s GasFields Commission has found that the regulatory framework of CSG-induced subsidence is “complex” and there is “no clear jurisdictional responsibility” over its regulation, nor is there a clear pathway for farmers to be compensated.
After these findings the commission made eight recommendations to the Queensland government to better protect landowners rights and prime agricultural land. The government accepted six of the recommendations in full and the remaining two in principle.
“The Queensland government is implementing a range of actions that focus on supporting industry and community coexistence,” a spokesperson from the resources department said.
“Any resources project must stack up environmentally, socially and financially and are assessed against strict criteria.”
In a statement, Arrow Energy said it was committed to extracting gas safely and sustainably.
“We operate in one of Australia’s most heavily regulated industries, with rigorous rules in place to protect the environment and the community,” an Arrow Energy spokesperson said.
“Arrow has productive relationships with hundreds of landholders across the Surat Basin, and we are committed to meaningful engagement with the communities in which we operate.”
But after a few days on the road, a weary-eyed Pocock puts it simply: “Environmental laws [in Australia] are broken … there’s no civilisation without agriculture,” he says. “Why would we risk our food bowls for short-term profit?”
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