Towards the end of Pip Courtney’s Landline program on coal seam gas (CSG) there is a good news story depicting a group of happy landholders. The cattle graze contentedly near the well pads, the CSG company is co-operative and the 60-70 wells provide a handy earner for the farmers.
Yet, she reports, another farmer cried when told he was going to have wells on his farm. Why such vastly different responses to the potential and impacts of CSG on farmers’ land?
As the Landline program reported, the Queensland Valuer General found even one well could mean a reduction of 12% in the value of a property. The situation appears not to have improved, but is complicated by a depressed property market and insufficient sales data to provide definitive evidence about the impact of CSG operations on land values. The Interim Senate Inquiry Report was told that compensation agreements do not take into account potential loss of land values, only loss of annual production.
Crikey
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