The Pilliga Forest is a truly iconic and precious place
The Pilliga is a vast expanse of bushland, located between Narrabri and Coonabarabran in western NSW. This iconic area of public land is under threat from the largest coal seam gas project ever proposed for New South Wales. Scroll down the page to read about this beautiful forest and the developments that threaten to destroy it...
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NEW STUDY: PILLIGA FOREST A ‘NOAHS ARK’ FOR WILDLIFE; THREATENED BY CSG MINING
A new ecological study of the Pilliga Forest in north-west NSW has found it is a ‘Noahs Ark’ or refuge for many bird and mammal species that are declining across… -
GEOCHEMIST SPEAKS OUT, TOXIC CSG WATER REINJECTION FEARS
Media Release 22 October 2012 Yes, it’s toxic: coal seam gas water reinjection sparks fears for Northwest Alarm bells are ringing for a geochemist, local farmers and environmentalists as Santos… -
SHOW US THE MAPS: SANTOS KEEPS COMMUNITY IN THE DARK
• Santos handout reveals only vague drill list, despite website announcement plans are ‘finalised’ • No drill location maps available to the public or affected farmers – consultation fail by…
No other forest like it…
It is busy with trees, with animals and with men.
It is lonely and beautiful.
It is a million wild acres.
And there is no other forest like it
from Eric Rolls, ‘A Million Wild Acres’.
Listen to extensive audio interviews on the Pilliga here
View of the Pilliga Forest from Panton’s Lookout (Image: Hugh Nicholson)
The vast forests of the Pilliga filter the waters that recharge our greatest inland water resource – some of the sweetest water that you will ever taste lies beneath the Pilliga sandstones in aquifers of the Great Artesian Basin.
The Pilliga is full of colour – red soils, endless blue skies, bright green cypress, grey ironbark on jet black trunks, and flowers to paint the world with.There is nothing else like it – so vast you can see it from space, so exceptional that it has become a place of myth and mystery, an icon of the Australian bush. Find out more about the natural values of the Pilliga Forest here.
Scribbly Gum Forest (Image: Hugh Nicholson)
Now the Pilliga is under threat from the largest coal seam gas project ever proposed for New South Wales.
The Santos project would change the Pilliga forever, transforming it from our most intact bushland remnant into a gigantic industrial zone.
Satellite view of the Pilliga showing extent of proposed gas field
The major impacts of the project, should it proceed, would be
- Clearing of at least 2,400 hectares of bush and fragmentation of 850 square kilometres
- Loss and fragmentation of habitat for up to 15 nationally threatened species and 48 species that are threatened in NSW.
- Increased feral pest and predator invasion and spread of noxious weeds
- Likely draw-down and contamination of groundwater systems, including the Great Artesian Basin
- Potential pollution of surface water from saline water extracted from coal seams
- Production of large quantities of concentrated brine as a waste product
- Dramatically increased risk of catastrophic fire in a landscape that is already extremely fire prone
Pilot coal seam gas production in the Pilliga Forest (Image: Tony Pickard)
A big thank you to Michael Moriarty for website design and all those who contributed images to the site.
Slideshow image credits: Wildflowers, Sandstone Outcrop, Scribbly Gum Forest- Anthony O’Halloran; Bloodwood Forest & Frog-Hugh Nicholson; Bat & Pygmy Possum- Phil Spark; Dry Creekbed-Boudicca Cerese.
