Mining buys Qld farms

MINING and energy firms have swooped to buy more than 390,000ha across Queensland despite almost unanimous opposition to the sell-off of prime farming land.

An exclusive Sunday Mail-Channel 9 survey has found 96 per cent of Queenslanders

want the best farming land protected from mining and development, The Sunday Mail reports.

The Heart of the Country survey, based on 1000 responses, was conducted in the lead-up to this week's Ekka. The full results will appear in The Sunday Mail next week.

In the Surat Basin west of Brisbane, small farming communities have been decimated as the race for mining riches forces families off properties after decades of working the land.

Fears over the impact of the mining squeeze on communities prompted angry locals to rally at Oakey, while an inquiry has been announced by the New South Wales Parliament into the environmental impacts of the coal seam gas industry.

In Queensland, the Bligh Government's draft strategic cropping land policy has been criticised for failing to stop miners swallowing up huge areas of quality farmland.

But Finance Minister Rachel Nolan insisted the policy would protect the best farmland from mining.

"We are changing the land law so that where you have the best strategic land, mining no longer has precedence and that is a very big change," she said.

Property searches by The Sunday Mail found more than 390,000ha of mainly cattle country is now in the hands of resource companies after major acquisitions in the Bowen, Surat and Galilee basins.

Fearful farmers said the amount of agricultural land owned by major mining firms would only increase as plans for several new "mega-mining" projects proceeded.

Grazing land is expected to be swallowed up for the proposed Carmichael coal and rail project in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland.

Grazier Charles Lund will find himself living on the doorstep of the mine when it begins operations in 2014.

"The sad thing is the companies we are taking on are some of the biggest in the world and we are some of the littlest in the world," he said.

Property searches show coal seam gas company QGC has bought more than 33,000ha of grazing land in the burgeoning Surat Basin.

Government-owned power generator Tarong Energy owns 6800ha of mostly grazing land near Kingaroy.

Other mining and energy companies to buy up large agricultural holdings include a $24 million purchase of 102,000ha southwest of Collinsville in central Queensland by a consortium that includes Xstrata and large purchases by Queensland Coal, Middlemount Coal, Arrow Energy and Anglo Coal.

Mining giant Xstrata has bought more than 45,000ha of grazing land around its planned new Wandoan coal project, which will produce up to 30 million tonnes of thermal coal a year and employ 800 people, making it one of the biggest coal mines in Australia.

Just a few farming families are holding out in a looming David and Goliath court case.

"You are talking about massive chunks of Queensland turning into coal mines," said local solicitor Peter Shannon, who is representing two of the farmers.

Coal seam gas company Origin owns about 65,000ha in the Surat Basin, mostly for its Spring Gully project.

Full story, The Sunday Mail.

Authors: mining - Yahoo! News Search Results