gas gets dug out, you get sold out

Gas Gets Dug Out, Gas Gets Dug Out, Gas Gets Dug Out, You Get Sold Out You Get Sold Out You Get Sold Out

Alana Ramshaw reflects on her recent activist trip to the Pilliga region of NSW, divided by coal seam gas exploration projects.

In February, students from the USYD, UTS and UNSW Enviro Collectives had the opportunity to go to Narrabri to gain an understanding of the local impacts of coal seam gas exploration.

This was an eyeopening experience that allowed us to support local activists from Gamilaraay Next Generation in their protest against Santos and the Santos-sponsored ‘festival of rugby’ hosted in the town.

Santos is an Australiabased oil and gas producer, one of the largest in the country. In the past year, they have attracted controversy and attention for their growing over 80 coal seam gas fracking wells in the Pillaga region, in far north-west NSW.

Narrabri is a town in this region where local First Nations people (the Gomeroi people) and activists are fighting to stop the gas giants destruction of country and erosion of local community and culture.

Gas mining in the Pilliga not only causes irreversible ecological destruction, but does so on sacred, sovereign Gomeroi land in a forest with spiritual significance in Gomeroi culture. Santos’ desecration of Indigenous land serves as a clear-cut example of the inseparable nature of the fights for climate justice and Indigenous justice.

We saw “regeneration zones” fenced off by Santos in a pathetic attempted reversal of their existing environmental vandalism. Planting a few sparse shrubs acro ss irreparably dead land does not constitute rehabilitation. We also encountered what we believe to have been a Santos tanker full of contaminated “produced” wastewater, driving into the forest with the intention of illegally dumping the hazardous waste.

The approach Santos have taken towards gaining local approval for the expansion of their gas project is underhanded, insidious, and intentionally divisive.

Santos have financially supported local businesses, schools, and events such as the rugby festival. In return, local newspapers refuse to publish anything critical of Santos or their gas project.

Local individuals and families are unwilling to criticise a corporation they

and will not, exist with in Santos’ automated model of infrastructure.

Through unclear, poorly completed reporting and modeling, Santos have framed their Pilliga project as economically and environmentally b e n e f i c i a l .

In their reports, Santos make no account of the fact that their gas mines in the Pilliga are running dry years before Santos’ modeling had predicted, and without account for the permanent ecological destruction the project is causing.

As protestors gathered outside the fenced off match, a weak attempt at gaining social license was made by Santos. In the hope of appeasing Indigenous concerns, a welcome to country and Indigenous dance were performed on the field, paying off relatives of activists for their support.

Talking with GNG activist Karra SmithKinchela we learned that her nephew had been onstage dancing. The fence between protestors and spectators seemed to almost represent the divisions Santos was responsible for sowing within the local community and within local families.

Ultimately, our trip to the Pilliga drove home the importance of frontline environmental work. It was heartbreaking and harrowing.

As advocates for environmental and Indigenous justice, the understanding and perspective we develop by witnessing the ecological and social impacts of the fossil fuel industry firsthand is invaluable. Frontline activism lends both credence and perspective to city-based activists that cannot be gained by other means. The work of local activist groups has been instrumental in the fight against campaigns of manufactured consent. Santos’ misinformation is becoming increasingly difficult to sell because of grassroots campaigns raising awareness of the ecological and social consequences of the project.

While Santos is trying to divide the Narrabri community, we left the town with an earnest faith that people and families will see through the smokescreen of fabricated information that Santos is attempting to sell.

Collage by Isabella D’Silva