Qld farmers unite against bauxite dig

Farmers in a rich cropping region northwest of Brisbane have joined the Lock The Gate movement, fearing their land could be dug up for bauxite.

Lock The Gate, an alliance of groups originally concerned about the coal seam gas industry, is now uniting environmentalists with farmers seeking to preserve their enterprises against exploratory and fossil fuel extraction activity.

The Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group says the South Burnett agricultural area 125km northwest of Brisbane will not be protected under recently-announced measures aimed at preserving prime agricultural land.

Queensland Bauxite Limited holds exploration permits over 3828sq/km of red volcanic soil in the Kingaroy region.

John Dalton, the secretary of the Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group, said their land appears to be excluded from the Queensland government's Strategic Cropping Land (SCL) guidelines.

He said the guidelines preserve only farmland with slopes of less than five per cent in the area, but local farms can exceed slopes of seven per cent.

SCL guidelines also say the soil pH must not exceed five but a lot of local soils are more acidic that that.

Mr Dalton said the rich, red soil grows peanuts, cereals, navy beans, potatoes, tropical fruits and corn and has been farmed since the 1870s.

"We really want to Lock The Gate on this completely, because we believe the government has to come and listen to us about this strategic cropping policy."

He said the SCL guidelines need to be changed to include the acidic volcanic soils of the region.

Mr Dalton said the government should present full details of mining proposals at an early stage of planning.

"The government's got to get up here and engage in some serious community liaison," Mr Dalton said.

The Concerned Citizens Group will host a meeting of locals on Wednesday at 7pm at the Kingaroy RSL.