Have you heard of the mighty Channel Country Rivers that flow from north-west Queensland down to Kati-Thanda-Lake Eyre in the heart of Australia?
They bring monsoon rains over-land to millions of hectares of floodplains supporting incredible wildlife, outback communities and a huge organic beef industry.
Tragically, Origin Energy has them in their sights and last week we discovered they had secretly obtained approvals to frack across almost 250,000 hectares of the floodplains*.
We can’t let this stand. Origin Energy is on track to destroy our most iconic natural areas with incredible cultural significance across the Kimberley, Territory and now south-west Qld.
The Queensland Government has been promising to protect these mighty rivers and floodplains since 2015, but has failed to deliver.
Now Origin Energy has been granted leases for shale oil without any public notification whatsoever – with Traditional Owners and graziers last week saying they were blindsided and not given any chance to have their say.
It will be Australia’s first shale oil extraction – a massive threat in floodplain environments like these.
It’s not too late for the Queensland government to reverse this decision. They have broken an election promise and they need to fix it. They need to know the eyes of Australia are on them and that we won’t stand for this.
Please share the story and build the numbers we need on the petition to really pressure the Queensland Government.
And next year we’ll come back with renewed energy to take on Origin Energy and their investors, to stop their dangerous plans targeting Australia’s most iconic natural areas for fracking.
Thanks for your support,
Nick and the Lock the Gate Queensland team