A group of Knitting
Nannas Against Gas from the Clarence Valley travelled to Chinchilla in the
Queensland gasfields for the second annual Knitting Nanna (KNAG) conference
which was held from September 26-28. Nannas from NSW and Queensland as well as
some from further afield (e.g. Alice Springs) assembled for the conference and
the gasfield tour on the last day. Nanna Lynette was deeply affected by the
experience of seeing what a gasfield is really like. Her report of the Nannas’
tour of the Kenya Gasfield (one of a number of gasfields close to Chinchilla)
is below.
* * * * *
Nanna Lynette's Report
I
found that although I’d seen many photos and movies of gasfields and had heard
people talk about them, nothing prepared me for visiting a gasfield and walking
around the infrastructure and hearing the massive amount of noise. The size of
the Kenya gasfield and the amount of infrastructure was mind-blowing.
 |
| Gas Well |
The
gas from the field is piped to the Kenya processing plant and after processing
is piped to Gladstone. The processing plant, which covers an area of a couple
of acres, consists of three massive metal structures about five storeys high. The noise coming from this was horrendous. We
were standing about a kilometre away and where we were the noise was deafening.
The
next part of the tour was a visit to the State Forest where some of the actual Kenya
gaswells are. Initially they were about a kilometre apart but when production
slowed they drilled other wells in between the existing ones so that the wells
were then 500 metres apart. Each well
sits in a cleared pad of at least a quarter of an acre. This means you’ve a fractured environment
because the ground is bare except for some gravel over it. And each well makes a horrific noise as well.
The
whole area is massively noisy and dusty because of all the clearing.
 |
| Nannas in a corridor infested with fireweed |
The
cleared pipeline corridors are about 100 metres wide and have been taken over
by weeds like fireweed. Along the main
pipeline there are vents – high point vents and low point vents about 400
metres apart.
The
high point vents vent raw gas 24 hours a day. Of course this smells. It just goes straight into the atmosphere.
The low point vents expel moisture which is collected in troughs and presumably
evaporates if it doesn’t overflow.
 |
| High point vent |
We
spent between four and five hours on the gasfield tour with gas company
officials following us around the whole time.
During
the tour my eyes started stinging and I started to get a headache. Nearly everyone had these symptoms. A couple of people had nose bleeds. I can’t even begin to think of what the
people who are surrounded by gasfields are going through. The side effects of living close to a
gasfield are very real. These
unfortunate people are not making it up.
The
trip and the tour was a good thing to do. I am left feeling really thankful
that we have kept this industry away from the NSW North Coast.
 |
| Cartoon from the local paper |
