Don’t want CSG on your land? It’s ok, AGL will wait until you’re dead, then buy up

I’ve heard quite a few interesting stories about the sort of tactics used by the big coal seam gas companies in ‘negotiating’ land access, but nothing quite like this.

Earlier this year, former Macquarie Bank chairman, David Clarke, died aged 69 after a battle with cancer. Clarke owned a vineyard in the Hunter Valley and before his death he spoke out against AGL’s plans for CSG in the region. He was passionate about protecting the vineyards from mining industrialisation and was against the AGL, who have an interest in CSG exploration and production. It’s been just 6 months since Clarke died and news broke yesterday that AGL had bought Clarke’s vineyard property.

The Newcastle Herald reported (emphasis my own):

THE Hunter vineyard of prominent coal seam gas objector and merchant banker, the late David Clarke, is set to be sold to AGL, the very company whose exploration activities he opposed.

Contracts are said to have been exchanged last week between the executors of Mr Clarke’s estate and the gas company for the original Poole’s Rock vineyard.

Mr Clarke, the former chairman of Macquarie Bank, founded the vineyard in 1988 in the Broke-Fordwich area.

He later acquired the Poole’s Rock estate and cellar door site at Pokolbin that was sold to the owners of the Audrey Wilkinson vineyard earlier this year.

Mr Clarke provided financial support to the Hunter Valley Protection Alliance’s campaign against AGL, and also lent his name to the efforts of the Hunter Wine Industry Association to have the vineyards excised from AGL’s vast exploration licence area. He died in April after a battle with cancer.

Protection alliance member Graeme Gibson said landowners were ‘‘locking the gate’’ to AGL and ‘‘David would be turning over in his grave’’.

Ian Ferrier, a trustee of Mr Clarke’s estate, has confirmed the sale.

Mr Ferrier said that ‘‘as a trustee you act to benefit the estate’’.

He declined to respond to further questions.

Last year, Mr Clarke said he believed AGL was not addressing the community’s concerns and it would mean the ‘‘death of tourism in the Hunter’’ if gas production went ahead.

Mr Clarke’s son Angus said yesterday the decision was out of the hands of the family and it was ‘‘obviously a sensitive issue’’.

He said the executors had made the decision to withdraw from the wine industry on the basis of the significant challenges facing it, and that AGL had approached them and been ‘‘decent to deal with’’.

An AGL spokeswoman said it was ‘‘currently in confidential discussions with a number of landowners in the Hunter project area to settle land access arrangements and land purchase arrangements’’.

The company would not comment on ‘‘speculation’’ but would advise of land purchases when transactions were completed, she said.

The Telegraph spoke to other people in the community, and unsurprisingly, they’re not happy (emphasis my own):

Property owners in Broke in the Hunter Valley were upset yesterday after reports the property, once owned by Macquarie Bank co-founder and anti-coal seam gas campaigner David Clarke, had been sold to the very company he was fighting before his death.

The sale paves the way for AGL to explore for coal seam gas in the area.

A spokeswoman said the company understood community concerns and had consultation processes in place to ensure residents were adequately informed.

“We have successfully demonstrated coal seam gas exploration can coexist with other land uses in the area and that it can be done in a safe and sustainable manner,” she said.

But residents vowed to fight plans every step of the way.

Signs reading “AGL go to hell” throughout town and on property fences leave no doubt about residents’ feelings.

Upper Hunter MP George Souris said he was concerned about the environmental impact and the effect of coal seam gas mining on tourism.

He promised to table in parliament an 11,000-signature petition protesting AGL’s move into the area.

Broke Fordwich Wine and Tourism Association vice-president Eden Anthony said the sale of the land to AGL was “disastrous”. “This is a real punch in the solar plexus for all of us,” he said.

Peter and Ruth Worgan, who bought a property a year ago as a tree change from Sydney, said a gas venture would change the look and feel of their tranquil valley.

“The extra pressure on infrastructure and the extra traffic on the roads will ruin the place,” Mr Worgan said.

Sue and David Knox spent three years choosing their property, which borders the Pooles Rock estate that now belongs to AGL.

“We are devastated,” Mrs Knox said. “I think of our property as a little piece of paradise and this is going to stuff Broke completely.”

AGL already has four properties in the Hunter.

What AGL have done may well be perfectly legal, but this story highlights what CSG companies are willing to do in order to gain access to regions where opposition to their operations is strong.

Despite the capacity for the industry to impact on entire communities, residents, landholders and local governments are largely cut out of the process of planning for these massive CSG projects. The communities are also left out of profiting from the CSG projects that are putting stress (socially, environmentally, economically, and so on) on their areas, with fly-in-fly-out workers often used by mining companies, and royalty payments (once they apply) going to state level.

As a parliamentary inquiry into the CSG industry is ongoing the NSW state government has an opportunity to be stepping up its efforts to protect existing industry and communities. However what we see is business as usual: the continuation of land being bought up by big mining, project licences being approved and renewed, and entire communities that rely on other industries, like wine making and tourism, facing industrialisation.