Narrabri Lateral Pipeline

This project has serious potential significant negative impacts for the environment and communities of today and for the future of the environment and the generations that will follow us, as it will open up the Pilliga for Santos' 850 well, Narrabri coal seam gas field.

This project will negatively impact the cultural heritage of the Gomeroi people. The cultural importance of the area's water resources, in particular Bohena Creek are at risk as planned pipeline drilling under it and across six other major water courses will disturb the alluvial groundwater. It is noted that the EIS does not discuss the cultural significance of the Bohena Creek to these traditional landowners. Further, the pipeline construction will destroy two known sites and damage another four sites. Spirituality, this will impact negatively on the wellbeing and cultural practice of the Gomeroi.

This project will negatively impact both farmland and natural forest. The pipeline will impinge upon 12 farms with one fifth of this being cropping land. The pipeline will also impinge the Pilliga Forest. Construction will clear 168ha. of the forest and will cut a 30-metre-wide corridor through the Pilliga East Forest, which will negatively impact the habitat of the microbat and other small native mammals. Further, this clearing will impinge upon the habitat and put at risk, threatened species as the Pilliga mouse, East Pygmy Possum and Corben's Long-Eared Bat.

It is noted that the Santos' Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the pipeline reasons economic benefits for both the Narrabri gas field and the Hunter Gas Pipeline but falls short on the responsibility for the potential negative impacts to biodiversity, water, climate and the communities affected.

The EIS must be amended to consider the full negative economic impacts of the greenhouse gas emissions from both the gas field and the two pipelines.

This impact is likely to be very significant given that Narrabri is predicted to be the sixth largest source of greenhouse pollution in NSW.

What now is decided for the present will determine what the generations will live with in the future that follow us.
We must hand them a good legacy so they can in turn do the same when their time comes!

Summary of submission emailed to [email protected]

With my family I run a mixed irrigation and dryland farming and grazing operation situated around Boggabri. I strongly object to this project. The impacts of this project, especially the cumulative impacts with existing fossil fuel projects a the area have not been fully identified and must be considered. I completely support the submission from People For The Plains, please refer to their submission for more information.

The assessment of Aboriginal cultural heritage is incomplete.

The groundwater risks are too large given the location of drilling.

Please see attached document

I am objecting on the grounds that this pipeline will threaten the water supply that local farming and communities rely on.

Too damaging to the local environment and waterways.

Objecting on the grounds and advice of:"“This pipeline would cut through productive farmland and risks damaging rivers, aquifers and the Great Artesian Basin.
Every decision that could put water at risk should be subject to full scrutiny – and we say that hasn’t happened here.”
— MGPA spokesperson Noni Wells.""

This will have significant negative impacts on water resources for integral farming.

Regional communities are under enough pressure from drought. They do not need their water supply impacted by such projects. Our water supply is integral to survival for not only humans but livestock and wildlife.

Objecting based on the following detrimental impacts:
- reduced property values for nearby impacted landowners/residents
- biosecurity risks on productive nearby ag land
- high risk water contamination in the Great Artesian Basin and nearby surface waters.
- increased risks of bushfires due to gas infrastructure.

I am attaching a document outlining my reason for objecting to the Narrabri Lateral Pipeline Project

See attached submission

As a NSW resident deeply concerned about the best use of agricultural land in this state, our water resources, our threatened biodiversity and climate change, I object to consent being granted to this project on the grounds of:
1. The negative impact that the pipeline will have by passing through substantial agricultural land, and through a significant section of the Pilliga Forest.
2. That it would result in the clearance of 168 ha of forest and damage the habitat for threatened species like the Corben's Long-eared Bat, Eastern pygmy possum and Pilliga Mouse.
3. Construction of the pipeline will damage multiple sites of significance for the Gomeroi people including the Bohena Creek.
4. The EIS for the project does not account for the projected greenhouse gas emissions arising from the construction, the generation of power for the plant, and the leakage of methane, from the gas field and pipelines.
The negative impacts upon biodiversity and threatened species, agricultural land, alluvial water, First Nations cultural heritage and greenhouse gas emissions exceed its proposed positives. It does not deliver a net benefit for the region concerned, NSW or Australia.

OBJECTION SUBMISSION TO SSI-53307723 NARRABRI LATERAL PIPELINE: 55 km Gas Pipeline – Narrabri Gas Project to Queensland Hunter Gas Pipeline
Proponent: Hunter Gas Pipeline Pty Ltd
Location: Narrabri Shire, NSW

1. Governance Failure and Absence of Trust
This objection is grounded in a fundamental and unavoidable reality:
NSW Planning and the Independent Planning Commission of NSW (IPCN) cannot be trusted to properly assess, regulate, or oversee this project.
Even if it were theoretically possible for coal seam gas extraction and associated pipelines to be undertaken in an environmentally responsible manner, the necessary condition for such a claim is competent, independent, transparent, and accountable oversight.
That condition does not exist in NSW.

The Department of Planning and the IPCN have repeatedly demonstrated:
*A lack of due diligence
*A lack of transparency
*A disregard for consent, social licence, and rural communities
*A pattern of prioritising vested interests over the public interest.

Their track record of public health and safety disasters, plundering our iconic landscapes and ecological habitat, poisoning our essential soil/water, contaminating our precious biodiversity & sabotaging our energy security and national security through unethical, CCP reliant RenewaBULL energy infrastructure approvals—particularly in rural and regional NSW—has destroyed any reasonable expectation of rigorous oversight.
This project must therefore be rejected on governance grounds alone.

2. Moral Hazard and Institutional Capture
The Narrabri Lateral Pipeline exemplifies systemic moral hazard within NSW planning institutions.
The Department and IPCN have already forced treacherous, CCP reliant, unethical
energy experiments—including the RenewaBULL Rort and predatory TransGrid Nightmare —onto unwilling rural communities without consent and without social licence.
These decisions have:
*Sacrificed agricultural land
*Fragmented ecosystems
*Divided communities
*Externalised risk while privatising profit
*Exposed communities to THE ASBESTOS OF THE FUTURE.
This pipeline proposal continues the same pattern: risk is imposed on farmers, water users, and ecosystems, while benefits flow to remote, foreign-aligned corporate interests.

3. Environmental and Water Risks – Unacceptable and Irreversible
Groundwater Contamination
The Narrabri Gas Project and its associated pipeline pose an unacceptable risk to:
*The Great Artesian Basin
*Local aquifers relied upon for farming, stock, and communities
Coal seam gas extraction produces high-salinity wastewater containing heavy metals and contaminants.
Given the demonstrated regulatory failures in NSW, assurances that leaks, spills, or casing failures can be prevented are not credible.
Once groundwater is contaminated, it cannot be remediated.
Water security in this region is finite, irreplaceable, and essential to food production and regional survival.

Ecosystem and Biodiversity Loss
The proposed pipeline corridor cuts through:
*The Pilliga Forest, a critical ecological refuge
*Endangered native grasslands
*Habitat for threatened species including the Pilliga Mouse and koalas
*Fragmentation, clearing, edge effects, and ongoing maintenance will permanently degrade these ecosystems.
*Offsets are an accounting fiction and do not replace functioning ecosystems.

Inadequate Assessment and Regulatory Gaming
The separation of the pipeline assessment from the broader Narrabri Gas Project appears to be a deliberate strategy to:
*Avoid comprehensive scrutiny
*Minimise cumulative impact assessment
*Circumvent the Commonwealth “water trigger”
This approach undermines the integrity of environmental law and demonstrates bad faith by both the proponent and regulators.

4. Agricultural, Economic, and Social Harm
Threats to Farming and Food Security
This project threatens:
*Permanent loss of productive agricultural land
*Bore water contamination
*Increased operational costs and insurance risks for farmers
*Agriculture is not compatible with gas infrastructure imposed without consent. *Food security is a strategic national asset, yet it is consistently treated as expendable by planning authorities.
*Procedural Injustice and Community Division
As with previous energy projects, this proposal has:
*Deepened social division
*Destroyed trust in institutions
*Created long-term community harm
*Consultation has been tokenistic, coercive, and dismissive.
This is procedural injustice, not engagement.

Landholder Rights
Landholders face:
*Survey access without genuine consent
*Difficulty obtaining third-party liability insurance
*Long-term legal and financial exposure
These are not minor inconveniences—they are permanent burdens imposed for private gain.

5. National Security and Foreign Control of Critical Infrastructure
It is completely unacceptable from a national security perspective to continue enabling foreign-linked conglomerates—including Cheung Kong interests (AGN/AGIG) and the State Grid Corporation of China—to dominate Australia’s gas and electricity infrastructure.
Australia must immediately conduct a comprehensive audit of:
*Ownership
*Control
*Component supply chains
*Operational authority
to determine whether entities involved are subject to the Chinese Communist Party’s National Intelligence Law, which compels cooperation with CCP intelligence activities and overrides allegiance to Australia.
Critical energy infrastructure must not be controlled by entities with no obligation to Australian sovereignty, security, or public interest.

6. Energy Policy Failure and False “Green” Ideology
This project exists solely to prop up the Reckless RenewaBULL Rort—a system that is:
*Intermittent
*Unreliable
*Unaffordable
*Dependent on CCP-controlled supply chains
Gas is being used as an absurdly costly “backbone” to support this failure.
This is not engineering-led policy; it is ideological capture.

Australia does not have an energy shortage—it has a competence shortage.
For genuine:
*Energy security
*Food security
*Biodiversity protection
*Economic prosperity
*Productivity
*National security
Australia must immediately stop prioritising fake-green vested interests and commit to building new High Efficiency COAL power stations using Australian resources, Australian engineering, and Australian control.

7. Rejection is Required
The Narrabri Lateral Pipeline should be rejected outright because:
*NSW Planning and the IPCN lack credibility and trust
*Water contamination risks are unacceptable
*Agricultural land is irreplaceable
*Biodiversity impacts are permanent
*Community consent does not exist
*National security risks are escalating

Any Gas project designed to entrench Reckless RenewaBULL Swindle Factories does not serve the public interest.
It serves vested interests at the expense of rural Australia, environmental integrity, food production, and national sovereignty.
STOP THE GOVERNMENT’S WAR ON FARMERS!