Group gears up for mining fight

AS THE mining boom moves closer to Warwick, the Southern Downs Protection Group is gearing up to take action with another meeting tomorrow night.

Group co-founder Leanne Undery said they already had two successful public meetings and a group meeting and would gather again to further discuss the direction they would take.

Mrs Undery said approximately 70 per cent of the Southern Downs area was covered by applications and granted mining exploration permits and the group was concerned about the potential impact projects would have on communities and existing industries, in particular agriculture and tourism.

"We will decide how to go about our campaign and start putting things in to action," Mrs Undery said.

"We'll decide what promotion to do and start lobbying the government at all levels."

Starting with just two members - herself and Dawn Heath - Mrs Undery said the group had piqued the interest of people from both the Warwick and Stanthorpe areas.

"There is quite a wide variety of people in the group and attending meetings, from farmers, I live in town and don't even have a permit on myplace, and there are people from rural residential properties," Mrs Undery said.

"What people have been concerned about is that they have had these exploration permits on properties without the land holders even knowing.

"People weren't aware before because there was a lot of confusion around it."

Mrs Undery said there was a concern about confidentially agreements between property owners in areas already being mined and the mining companies, which meant there was not much information out there.

"But that's what the group is for and we'll be door knocking and holding stalls," Mrs Undery said.

She said the speed at which the projects were moving was also a concern.

"It is coming more into the public focus, especially with the coal seam gas," she said. "There are 4000 coal seam gas wells at the moment and that's going to explode to up to 40,000 I think within the next 20 years, it could be sooner."

She said there were different issues for Stanthorpe and Warwick with different consequences from coal seam gas and mineral mining.

"Down in Warwick people have been more concerned because of the coal seam gas," Mrs Undery said.

"In the Granite Belt, raising awareness is a bit challenging because it has mineral mining permits, not coal seam gas.

"With coal seam gas, they enter peoples' properties but with the open cut gold, those mines just buy out those properties and it would be total devastation for the landscape," she said.

Mrs Undery said the Southern Downs Protection Group had been guided by other groups from the south-east Queensland region; including Oakey, Toowoomba and Kingaroy.

"They are all supporting us so there has been a lot of communication between us," she said.

Ten years ago the township of Acland, situated less than two hours from Warwick, had a population of 300 but since the establishment of an open cut coalmine just 2km from the centre, it has been reduced to a one-man town.

The Southern Downs Protection Group will meet at the Warwick Library at 7pm tomorrow. The group has a Facebook page and can be contacted by emailing sdpg@live.com.au or calling Mrs Undery on 0422 014 668.