WHEN John and Jo Jenkyn moved from Sunshine Coast suburbia to a block south of Chinchilla eight years ago, they thought they'd found the perfect place to raise their children Yasmin and Aaron.
Both born with cerebral palsy, the young teens needed peace and fresh air to aid their development and their cottage on a 63ha bush block was a dream come true.
Until the coal seam gas industry moved into the neighbourhood.
That was in 2011 when contractors got busy building QGC's Kenya Water Treatment plant about four kilometres from the Jenkyns' boundary, as well as the pipeline, wells
and compression stations that will soon link up to be part of the QCLNG project.
According to Mr Jenkyn, it's a clanging, banging, beeping and whirring business, and has often breached the noise limits under QGC's site-specific Environmental Authority (EA) issued by the Queensland Government.
"QGC media says they operate from 6am to 6pm, but we can hear machinery, helicopters and tankers at any time," Mr Jenkyn said.
"We were here first and they've ruined it for us."
Aaron begs to differ; he loves the noise of the CSG industry, and finds it so entertaining he often can't resettle into a good night's sleep.
That means he burns extra energy and loses weight, a side-effect his fragile metabolism can ill afford.
But according to monitoring done by the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection in response to Mr Jenkyn's claims, QGC activities have not breached the prescribed noise limits of between 28dB and 40dB.
Hardly surprising, says Shine Lawyers Dalby partner Peter Shannon, who agrees with Mr Jenkyn's theory that QGC knows when its noise levels are being monitored and hushes up accordingly.
"We've had a couple of instances where instead of investigating first, the department goes straight to the party under investigation and tells them," Mr Shannon, who has been engaged by Mr Jenkyn to help him get an outcome with QGC, said.
"This is part of the problem; we have a government that clearly wants (CSG development) to go ahead."
"We've got plenty of government bodies facilitating with the CSG industry.
"We need departments that are regulators to be regulating, not facilitating."
The head of the CSG Compliance Unit (CSGCU) has met with QGC to explain why the Jenkyn family is up in arms but Mr Shannon said it has had little effect.
"It's like hitting them with a feather," he said.
Mr Shannon said landholders on limited means like Mr Jenkyn cannot afford to engage a noise assessor to provide independent data, and even if QGC was found to be in breach of noise limits, a fine would likely be the end of it.
Mr Jenkyn said QGC initially offered him a cash payment of $70,000 which has now risen to $100,000.
"What they forgot was that I owe $220,000," Mr Jenkyn said.
While CSG companies are renowned for speed in negotiating conduct and compensation agreements with landholders who have gas well sites on their properties,
Mr Jenkyn believes landholders like him without gas assets are low priority.
"I've been told they've got to get the gas to Gladstone first, then they'll sort out other problems."
After two years of discussions with QGC, Mr and Mrs Jenkyn believe are in the "other problems" pile.
Mr Jenkyn believes gases including sulphur dioxide coming from wells and the Kenya plant as well as lack of sleep, are harming the family's and the block's health.
Mrs Jenkyn and Aaron are asthmatics and Mrs Jenkyn recently had an asthma-related heart attack.
The rich birdlife which once inhabited the block has gone and last year 18 of the Jenkyns' cattle died inexplicably.
Aaron has developed unexplained rashes, and the family is now buying in water for fear their on-farm supply has been soured by CSG activity.
"We can't stop the industry, but we would like them to show respect for the land and the landholders," Mrs Jenkyn said.
A QGC spokesman said QGC had undertaken a series of measures at its nearest operations, a lay-down yard 1.2km from Mr Jenkyn's property, to ensure noise conditions were being met. These include:
- Imposing a night-time curfew on use of the facility.
- Installing a camera to enforce this restriction.
- Replacing a generator with a quieter model.
He said QGC had offered the Jenkyn family a goodwill payment to limit noise inside their home, to investigate installing solar power to replace a diesel generator and to temporarily relocate the family during future drilling on an adjacent property.
The Department of Natural Resources and Mines said CSGCU is working with the Jenkyns, QGC and government agencies to ensure the family's complaints were dealt with appropriately.
