Nearly 200 people turned up today at Duddy property “Rossmar Park” to protest against BHP’s business development drilling. At very short notice, farmers and concerned residents gathered to protest against the continuation of this process without a full, independent, catchment-wide water study to determine the effects of deep drilling on the underground aquifers of the Liverpool Plains.

The community knows: we cannot afford to have these water supplies damaged, cracked, polluted and drained away. The aquifers grow our food and provide water for people, animals and the environment. The miners do not understand this or they would not be mining here – there is no ‘damage free’, half-way house as BHP’s extensive environmental damage from long wall mining down South already shows.

People power has said again today: it’s time to draw a line in the rich black soil to end the damage caused by state-sponsored development on steroids. It’s time water, food and people came first.