More than 55 people from the tiny community, 94km north of Windsor, were part of the protest after the recent drilling of an exploration core hole to investigate the area’s coal seam gas potential.

Kathy McKenzie of the Putty Community Association said the core hole is only 500 metres from the World Heritage Wollemi National Park and near a creek which flows into the Colo River, a declared “wild river”, before entering the Hawkesbury.

Ms McKenzie said the small community was determined that the pristine water and environment of their area was not going to be ruined by environmentally questionable coal seam gas mining methods which could cause gas to leak underground into the water catchments.

Their determination to conserve the environment was one of the reasons for the green colour of the famous Eureka flag.

“I believe it is up to us to protect the parks and the catchment area, because the government obviously isn’t doing it,” she said. “A lot of people think that they don’t have a choice to oppose this mining because they believe what the mining companies tell them, but they do have a choice and that’s what we are trying to get across.”

Ms McKenzie said one of the problems was that Putty’s planning had historically been aligned with mining-focused Singleton and the upper Hunter rather than the more environmentally focused Sydney planning goals.

She said the people of the township were increasingly aligning themselves with the Hawkesbury rather than Singleton because many of the landowners were from Sydney and others found it was easier to get to the Hawkesbury to do their shopping.

This national day of action against coal seam gas coincided with the beginning of water week, and all communities fighting the development of the coal seam gas industry in their area are gathering for a day of protest.

The official photo of those present and the tally was taken at 1.30pm for inclusion in the nat-ional tally. More information about the issue is available at www.putty.nsw.au and www.puttygasbag.blogspot.com