At the last two elections, the Queensland Government promised to protect the mighty floodplains of the Channel Country in the Lake Eyre Basin. But they haven’t delivered, and now Origin Energy have applied to frack for gas across 11 leases covering over 225,000 hectares of land.
What’s at Risk?
Fracking plans in the rivers and floodplains of the Lake Eyre Basin threaten the unique ecosystems of the “living heart of Australia”. The vast expanse of inland Queensland’s Channel Country is part of one of the planet’s last remaining pristine desert river systems. A fragile environment that is now in the sights of gas companies for large scale unconventional gas development. Conventional gas extraction has existed in the Lake Eyre Basin since the 1960s, but it is completely different from the planned unconventional gas development in terms of scale, intensity and impacts. The gas industry is now targeting the Channel Country, including its sensitive rivers and floodplains, for the development of unconventional gasfields, including shale oil and gas, tight gas and deep coal gas.
CHANNEL COUNTRY GAS IMPACTS
Don’t let them frack Queensland’s outback rivers. At the last three elections, the Queensland Government promised to protect the mighty floodplains of the Channel Country in the Lake Eyre Basin. But they haven’t delivered, and now Origin Energy have been given approval to frack for oil and gas across 11 leases covering over 225,000 hectares of land. New expert research shows these gasfields would be the most polluting gasfields in Australia, and would blow our greenhouse gas reduction targets out of the water. Stop Origin Energy destroying the last free-flowing desert rivers in the world. Tell the Premier not to frack with our rivers and floodplains. To learn more see ‘Living heart of Australia: fracking plans threaten fragile Channel Country’ by The Guardian