Tim and I were invited to go flying on Saturday with local man Tony Pickard. The purpose of the flight was to check out the Maules Creek coal mine and some of the local coal seam gas projects.

Some years ago, Eastern Star Gas started prospecting around the district for coal seam gas. Most locals were positive about the development. It's always good to diversify the local economy and attract new sources of income.

Tony Pickard lives along the Westport Road, south of Narrabri. He was originally supportive of Eastern Star Gas, but started to get annoyed with them when they took heavy vehicles along the road but failed to maintain it as required by their approval. He began to check out their wells and discovered a lot of bad practices.

When Santos bought out Eastern Star Gas last year, and the Narrabri CSG project with it, he went to them with the information he had discovered. The new owners were shocked and have since committed big dollars to fixing the problems.

So on Saturday morning we took off from Moree and flew back down to Maules Creek to view the mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mine is  much bigger than I ever imagined, and it is set to become much bigger. According to Tony it will eventually become the bigest open-cut coal mine in the Southern Hemisphere, swallowing up most of the Laird's Forest- as seen below.

 

 

After this we flew south-west to visit some CSG pilot wells near Gunnedah and in the Pilliga Scrub.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After taking 400 shots in total it was time to go home. We flew right over Narrabri.

 

Our house is clearly visible near the centre of the picture, just to the left of the roundabout.

The creek looks fabulous from here as does the  surrounding country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It took me a minute to work out what this unusual building is.

 

For those with a passing knowledge of Narrabri it is the famous Nandewar Motel.

 

 

 

 

Finally an overview of the town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great morning. My only regret was that the overcast, humid conditions left most of the colours looking a little washed out. I tried fiddling with photo editing software and couldn't get any real improvement.

There are more photos in this album