NSW Farmers have organised buses to take people to Sydney for a march to Parliament House on 1 May 2012. City dwellers, farmers, environmentalists are all encouraged to march to protect your land, water and environment from mining activity.

It’s an interesting time in politics as the new Green leader, Christine Milne goes on a nationwide tour of rural and regional Australia, the Federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, declares himself a conservative conservationist and the CWA prepare to march in a protest in Sydney. Meanwhile some councils and companies are thinking outside the box on solar energy.

Government Forum: No Protection from Mining in NSW

The Upper Hunter Regional Land Use Public Forum in Singleton on 13 April was a frustrating waste of time. As the meeting progressed it became clear the NSW Government will not protect the State from coal or coal seam gas mining.

Book launch – Dirty Fracking Business by Peter Ralph

Peter Ralph is coming to the Hunter Valley to launch and sign copies of his new book on Sunday 15 April at 6:00pm River Flats Estate, Wollombi Road, Broke.

BYO: drinks, a plate of food to share and if you would like to stay for a wood-fired pizza, please bring a bowl of pizza toppings (eg., salami, ham, capsicum, onions, mushrooms ...)

Dart Energy shares below 30c

Soon after I found out about Dart Energy’s plans to drill for coal seam gas at Putty I checked their share price and it was $0.86. That was on 15 April 2011. Today the share price is $0.295.

Putty Rally - video link

Here's a link to Lee Jeloscek and his camera crew’s coverage on Channel 7 of the rally at Putty on 1 April against the NSW Government’s Strategic Regional Land Use Plan (SRLUP) for the Upper Hunter. http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/nsw/watch/28812009/putty-fires-up-over-csg-plans/885604/

Putty Rally against Strategic Regional Land Use Plan

The Putty community and people downstream came together for a rally at the Putty Hall on Sunday 1 April.

The rally was organised as a protest against the NSW Government’s Strategic Regional Land Use Plan (SRLUP) for the Upper Hunter which has the Putty area mapped as an area with potential for coal seam gas extraction and open-cut and/or underground coal mining.