Five hundred farmers from the Darling Downs agricultural region attended a protest meeting at Cecil Plains, west of Toowoomba, on May 19. They protested against the expansion of coal seam gas mining on their properties.
The May 19 Courier-Mail said the farmers called on the state government to place a moratorium on mining development while its environmental impacts are properly assessed.
The protesters surrounded a paddock with a one-kilometre barrier of farm machinery in a demonstration of their abilityto stop the mining companies from entering their properties.
The Courier-Mail said up to 40,000 gas wells could be drilled across some of the state's best food-producing land.
“Protest organiser Dave Armstrong said famers were gearing up for the fight of their lives. ‘What other choice do we have?’ Mr Armstrong asked. ‘They have put us in a corner’.”