Do You Need a Gas Lawyer?

Queensland grazier Joe Hill only used a solicitor twice to write letters to CSG companies. The first one was to QCG about drilling in the melon hole country and having pits for the drilling sludge which could flow anywhere. He advised QGC that if any of the sludge came onto his property through the melon holes he would hold them responsible.

Melon holes (called gilgais in New South Wales) are natural depressions in clay soil varying in size, with a depth of six inches to six feet. During rain, they fill up with water and flow from one to the other, becoming a water course. Melon holes and gilgais are found from Northern New South Wales up to Emerald in Queensland. The Queensland Department of Environment & Heritage Protection (EHP) www.ehp.qld.gov.au maintains that melon holes are not a water course. Gas drilling is not allowed within 200m of a water course.

Keep Miners Off Your Property

Most people try to avoid lawyers because of the costs but when a CSG company approaches a landholder for access to their property they are advised by the gas companies to seek legal advice. Queensland grazier Jo Hill disagrees.

‘Why spend good, hard earned money on a solicitor when you can put up a no trespass sign for $150. The gas companies have signs on their freehold country so if it’s good enough for them it’s good enough for me. When a gas company rings up, you say, “You know my address, put it in writing,” and hang up the phone. You haven’t got to talk to them and they can’t make you. If you don’t want to sign an agreement they can’t force you to, and it is not an offence not to sign one. We’ve got all the right, they have no right.’

Joe Hill says NO to CSG

Joe Hill, an Angus cattle breeder from Miles, has been arguing with gas companies and government agencies since 2009 when gas test wells were first drilled in the area. Despite four companies attempting to put wells and infrastructure on his 2,000 acre property, it is one of the few in the area still gas free. I interviewed Joe on my recent trip to Queensland and this is the first in a series of blogs from that interview and from subsequent research and telephone conversations. Joe’s determination to keep gas companies off his land has resulted in a bend in a gas pipeline being named after him.