Residents travelled in from nearby properties and communities on April 9 to hear from Dart Energy manager Robbert de Weijer and have their questions about the proposed Putty gas mining project answered.

Dart Energy has plans to drill for coal seam gas if it is found in the area.

“I always try and put myself into the other person’s shoes and say what if I lived here, how would I feel about the coal seam gas industry coming in with drilling rigs, wells and pipes and increased traffic – what’s going to happen to the water, what is going to happen to the aquifer?” Mr de Weijer said in his opening presentation.

Questions were raised in relation to drilling practices, impacts on local infrastructure and the environment, and compensation.

The question of gas storage created debate, as residents questioned whether a power station would be built locally to store the gas.

“We could pipe it out to a place where we potentially have a small power plant; we have not done any detailed planning around this as we are at the early stages of the exploration phase,” Mr de Weijer said.

“If you are surrounded by national forests and obviously if that is not accessible then ...Have you done your homework?” a resident fired back.

“We have done our homework about where we want to drill the exploration wells,” Mr de Weijer responded. “But we haven’t come to the point yet where we say OK and have done any detailed planning around where the gas would go to e.g. a power plant etc.” Mr de Weijer said they didn’t plan to use any harmful chemicals at the site and were keen to put in a plan that was sustainable.