Qld protesters rally against coal seam gas

Coal seam gas (CSG) mining constitutes one of the biggest land grabs in Australian history, a Brisbane rally has been told.

The rally of environmentalists, The Greens, farmers, property rights groups, the splinter Queensland Party and members of Socialist Alliance voiced fears a planned gas pipeline into a residential area will open it to a large-scale expansion of mining there.

They condemned a plan by Queensland Gas Company (QGC) to push a pipeline through into the rural residential Tara Estates, 250km southwest of Brisbane.

The Hands Off Tara rally of about 200 people drew about 20 volunteers for a planned blockade of the pipeline route at Tara beginning on Monday, March 14.

Tara resident Scott Collins said governments were telling people that CSG mining was safe and that the industry must meet thousands of environmental conditions.

"If you need thousands of conditions, why are you letting it happen in the first place?" he said.

Mr Collins said the right-of-entry given to CSG companies constituted "one of the biggest legalised thefts of private land in the history of Australia".

"What they're planning for Tara is thousands of wells amongst thousands of people," he said.

The infrastructure will include compressor stations, gas pipes and water pipes, Mr Collins said.

Dulacca farmer Lee McNicol said landholders all over the world at least have the right to invite mining companies onto their land, but not in this case.

"These people at Tara are saying: no, we don't want you on under the terms that you're currently offering and the way that you operate."

Mr McNicol is a member of the farmers' group Lock the Gate which has vowed to stop CSG bores on their properties.

Conservationist Sarah Moles said she is concerned about the fate of the Great Artesian Basin if the CSG industry is allowed to proceed.

"The Queensland government is allowing that industry to take unlimited amounts of water from the Great Artesian Basin," Ms Moles said.

"Unfortunately it's not just water. The water that comes out of the coal seams contains a lot of salt, something like five to eight tonnes per megalitre."

She said up to 2.8 million tonnes of salt could be brought to the surface by CSG mining to impact local prime farm soils.

"We are squandering some of the best soils on the planet," Ms Moles said.

Greens senator-elect Larissa Waters said the debate over CSG was about land, water, food and the climate.

"This new industry, coal seam gas, is being absolutely rushed into by both our state and federal governments."

Ms Waters said the profits would go offshore.

The Greens want a moratorium on CSG until the long-term impacts are known.

Ms Waters said neither governments nor CSG companies know what the long-term impacts of mining will be.

Friends of the Earth organiser Drew Hutton said the Tara blockade would be peaceful but determined.

"What's happening at Tara is the frontline of a war," Mr Hutton said.

"It's not a shooting war but it's a war nevertheless."

"We're going to adopt the same sort of approach as people like Ghandi and Martin Luther King pioneered," Mr Hutton said.

Meanwhile, Queensland's Mines Minister Sterling Hinchliffe told reporters the coal seam gas industry had worked in co-operation with landowners and alongside primary producers for 15 years.

He said the government is committed to best practice in the industry.

"I believe that we've got good arrangements in place, protections for the interests of landowners and I encourage companies to follow best practice," Mr Hinchliffe said.

The Queensland Party's sole MP, Aidan McLindon, who broke from the opposition LNP in 2010, said he will join the blockade at Tara.