Hopeland Declaration Day

Central Processing Plant

A ten minute drive south of Chinchilla brings you to a small area called Hopeland, bordered by the Condamine River. This area of very old river flats with high quality soil is registered as priority agriculture land, similar to the Lockyer Valley and Liverpool and Cecil Plains. The area produces crops such as cotton, sorghum, chick peas and wheat.

Large gas infrastructure such as the Orana Central Processing plant is close by. Origin Energy is knocking on the doors of these multimillion dollar farms as they want to begin extracting CSG, starting with 171 wells at Hopeland. Some landholders have agreed while others have locked their gates and put up no trespassing signs.

A group of people against CSG has completed a survey of all the households in the area and 85 percent of people are against CSG. A Declaration Day will be held this Saturday May 16. This is significant. Hopeland has an extremely conservative community and it’s the first to be surveyed on the western Darling Downs and in the Western Downs Regional Council, which goes from Dalby almost out to Roma, a huge amalgamated shire.

The land at Hopeland will be farmed for hundreds of years. The gas may last for five years, the companies reckon they will get thirty years but can they ever rehabilitate the land and the aquifers?