Gunnedah is a small town in Liverpool Plains. It is in North-east New South Wales. Gunnedah Shire is 264 metres above sea level. Its overall landscape is quite flat. The town is situated West of Tamworth and North West of Sydney. Gunnedah is on the Kamilaroi and Oxley highways. Through the town flows the Namoi River. Liverpool Plains has 5 town and 4 villages situated within it. The towns include Gunnedah, Narrabri, Quirindi, Werris Creek and Tamworth. The villages include Breeza, Carroll, Mullaley and Willow Tree.
Gunnedah is an agricultural area with about 80% of the land dedicated to farming. Gunnedah’s main produce is meats such as beef, lamb and pork as well as grains, coal and cotton. The land’s origins trace back to the Aboriginal people…show more content… SANTOS have been extracting gas from the earth underneath Liverpool Plains. By doing this they bring poisonous water to the top of the soil which is killing crops because of its high salinity. As a result of Gunnedah being an agricultural community, the coal-seam gas mining has been changing the way the farmers work. For generations the land in Liverpool Plains has been the most fertile and now the crops are dying because of the high salinity. This would result in families moving away from the area because there wouldn’t be as much income from farming anymore. This would also cause families who had been in that area for generations to move to other areas. In the future there will be less crop production if this mining doesn’t stop occurring and with Australia’s growing population there is a need for more food production. The Government has allowed these companies to mine and kill the land without really considering the consequences and is now threatening prime agricultural land that would be essential for Australia’s survival. Also the accelerated mining is causing the water table to drop which is a factor into why the water supply is…show more content… Shenua Energy was granted an exploration licence for the Watermark coal exploration area in the Gunnedah Basin. In 2010 the NSW farmers challenged the mining companies in the Supreme Court against the coal seam mining in Liverpool Plains. The farmers won but the NSW Labour government changed the laws so they could still mine in the area. Since then NSW Farmers Association has expressed their concern and frustration on how the NSW government isn’t listening to its citizens about the decisions around Coal Seam Gas Mining. In an article by Michael Condon on the ABC website he writes that “NSW Farmers president Fiona Simson says…the NSW Government has broken its promises about protecting critical farming land”. Other organisations that are working on protecting Liverpool Plains are the Caroona Coal Action group and SOS Liverpool Plains as well as the Lock the Gate Alliance. The Caroona Coal Action group and the SOS Liverpool Plains groups were formed in response to the extraction of Coal Seam Gas. The Caroona Coal Action group aims to stop the destruction of the environment surrounding Liverpool Plains from mining and to ensure that the agricultural area is protected. They try to keep all projects on mining transparent and aim to make sure that all information about what
