For the north-west of NSW, plans are cooking up for a giant gas field expansion stretching from the Queensland border to Dubbo.

The first of seven stages will be the proposed Narrabri Gas Project with 850 wells in the Pilliga State Forest.

The total gas exploration banging at the doors of farming communities marks the end of the road.

Excessive amounts of emissions, pollution of rivers and aquifers, annihilation of green belts, flora and fauna, the degradation of farmland, the health of communities - these colossal gas explorations will shatter land and life like malignant tumours.

With the Narrabri wells comes the push for the 830km Hunter Gas Pipeline that will carve a corridor of 30m width across the land from Queensland's Roma to Newcastle.

The pipeline is conditional on the development of Santos' Narrabri Gas Project.

They together swallow about $3 billion.

If that amount of money would instead be invested in renewable energy, it could deliver households and businesses with clean energy and save the surrounding areas from pollution.

We are dished up the tale that gas is critical for domestic energy supply.

In regards to the urgency that surrounds the gas projects desperate to fast-track approvals; it seems that the proponents wrestle for a spot in the fossil fuel industry.

Conflicting with the cranking up of the local NSW gas well productions, the Newcastle GasDock import terminal promises to save NSW from an alleged "gas shortage" by covering 80 per cent of NSW annual requirement with imported gas.

The LNG facilities of Port Kembla have been approved to ramp up import capacity in order to supply NSW with 75 per cent of its total market need.

That's 155 per cent coverage of demand of gas flowing into NSW from overseas suppliers.

That should make the injection of natural gas from domestic sources obsolete.

On top of that, WorldOil reports that Australian exports of LNG are currently flooding the global market with a substantial surplus of gas.

The gas economy drills shafts to nowhere.

There is the legacy of abandoned wells and waste water ponds.

The area of NW NSW is one of the most agriculturally productive local government areas of Australia.

The Great Artesian Basin is a stable water resource that supplies farming communities in abundance.

Groundwater is a critical resource.

Without the GAB food production in Australia is in jeopardy.

The thought of a reckless fiddling with a precious resource like water is chilling.

Contamination is guaranteed. Spills are inevitable.

The waste water is toxic and contains levels of salt that harden the soil and stop plants from growing.

Rehabilitation of exploration sites is a joke.

Hazardous chemicals in ground- and surface water are already exterminating life.

In addition we have the looming risk of fires. It seems the gas companies like to play with fire.

The flares that burn even in a total fire ban impose a huge risk to bush fires which have only recently ravaged the Pilliga so powerfully that the forest burned bare.

Burning bores and bubbling rivers are proof of methane entering water reservoirs to a degree that is hazardous to health and in igniting fires.

Wells and pipelines leak.

The flares propel fugitive emissions with up to 250 different toxic chemicals.

One of the components for example is the radioactive caesium 137.

Residents complain about serious health problems and children are affected from neurological problems to cancer. Iconic natural areas are under threat.

The Pilliga forest would have to brace for the spread of a virus of hundreds of wells, threatening extinction for the vulnerable Pilliga mouse, koalas, wallabies and the wedge tailed eagle.

To risk any or all of that is environmental vandalism.

The Grains Research and Development Corporation, commissioned by the Australian Government, recommends "adapting agricultural practises" (...) to respond to changing environmental conditions," (...) "in order to maintain resilient and profitable food systems." (GRDC Update Papers, 13/03/2020).

The Bellata region, between Narrabri and Moree, and one of the gas hot spots to be, is experiencing extreme temperatures exceeding 45 degrees Celsius 4 per cent of the time, while the Bellata rainfall has declined over the years.

Last summer, 2018/19, temperature records were broken inside 90 days in over 200 locations.

The same paper attributes the droughts and heat waves to anthropogenic climate change and acknowledges that heatwaves will come thick and fast if GHG emissions keep rising.

"There is at least 95% confidence that humans are the main cause of global warming." (IPCC, 2018)

This is a fight for Australia, a fight for Mother Earth.

The consequences of exposing gases and fuels to the atmosphere are far reaching. From the Great Artesian Basin to the Great Barrier Reef, the industry is a beast that has to be conquered before the celebrated Australian bush will be ruined for good, before the extinction insanity robs the country of its amazing native species.

We are on the brink of that scenario now.

The drilling into aquifers and rock layers of the earth is upsetting the spiritual connection to the land, a most troubling consequence of gas exploration.

The layers have been formed in prehistoric times, periods that have enabled life on earth being the powerful launch pads for biological life.

Processes of millions of years were necessary to give birth to the ecological diversity the planet is unique for.

We owe our existence to these processes that lay witness in the subterranean seams. Drilling gas wells into sites of high spiritual value is a sacrilege.

CSG exploration is a daunting issue and citizens concerned feel the injustice of misguided decisions by politicians that are nothing but a slap in the face of their constituents.

Wherever you look community groups have sprung up in response to the CSG risk, actively defending their livelihoods, homes and families.

The NSW Planning Department has recommended and approved the application for the Narrabri Gas Project.

The proposal has been referred to the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) for final approval.

Submissions are now open.

Please, write submissions to the IPC.

Submissions close July 31, 2020.

You may wish to attend the Public Hearing on 20-24 July 2020.

Register online by July 10, 2020.

For dates and webinars go to CSG Free North West.org.au or Lock the Gate org.au

Look out for the submissions guide if you have not submitted already and need some assistance.