Recently, Landholders were informed that the Queensland Government had granted Tarong Energy a mineral development licence over the Haystack Road coal deposit. As a result a hastily convened Landcare meeting was held on Thursday 25th September to discuss the resumptions of prime agricultural farmland. There are very few cropping regions of fertile floodplains within Australia.
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This development will destroy one of the most productive agricultural areas for eternity - this at a time in when the world has consumed more food than it has been able to produce for the last 7 consecutive years. World grain reserves are at their lowest in 50 years and in the last 18 months, food riots have broken out in 37 countries. |
Our meeting unanimously called on the Queensland government to stop Mineral 
Development licences and Mining licences on iconic farmland. Our Landcare group feels strongly about the issue of food security and iconic farmlands. It is impossible to rehabilitate floodplain soils that have been laid down during flooding events over thousands of years. The benefits of natural soil fertility, structure, porosity and bulk density would be lost for thousands of years.
Much of the world's best farming land is already lost through land degradation and urban encroachment. When the coal belt stretches almost the length of Queensland, surely preserving highly productive farm land and exploiting coal deposits in areas of low productive capacity is a better option.
Our Landcare group wishes to work cooperatively with the Queensland Government to achieve the best possible outcomes for the land, the environment and Tarong Energy.
While we are obviously