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.

‘In this country the water goes into the aquifers from the melon holes,’ said Joe ‘If the water goes down, the gas will come up. For years they told us that the aquifers weren’t connected then three or four years ago they admitted that they were.’

Joe’s second letter was to QGC to say that if their company employees, contractors or agents came onto his land without his? permission, as per the sign at his front gate, they would be charged with trespassing. ‘They told me I should get some advice on that,’ said Joe. ‘I told them to come out with the police. They like doing that to people. I told them I’d have all of them charged with trespassing but I’ve never heard from them again and that’s over three years ago. No one can get around trespassing. If you say no, there’s nothing anybody can do. One bloke here says, “What part of no don’t you understand, the N or the O?”

‘Lawyers say they will represent landholders and get a good deal for them,’ said Joe. ‘Of course they want to represent us because they make a heap of money, drawing up access agreements. They have never stopped a resource company going onto someone’s property. They tell landholders that they have to negotiate with them, but they don’t have to and the lawyers know that.’

‘A lot of people are frightened of speaking up because they have signed confidentiality agreements, but these only cover the nondisclosure of the amount of money the company has paid to have wells or infrastructure on your property. It doesn’t cover anything else. If chemicals spill onto your property you can tell people. If the gas company does not comply with the access agreement you can tear it up and kick them off your place. People aren’t game to make a fuss because they are frightened of these companies. They threaten them with legal action, which the landholders can’t afford to fight.’

‘All solicitors do is aid and abet the bloody resource companies,’ said Joe. ‘A large Australian legal firm, that claims to help landholders write access agreements, has a board member with interests in gas companies. That’s a conflict of interests.’