Kingaroy grower John Larsen set for bumper crop as coal mine threatens fertile land

Mr Larsen is one of a number of local producers who are nervously awaiting the release of an Environmental Impact Statement expected this month into Moreton Resources’ proposed coal mine. 

The mine would see 10 million tonnes of coal per annum extracted from an open-cut pit a few kilometres outside of the town. 

Concerned landholders will have 30 to 45 days to respond to the EIS which along with the Mining Lease Application could be put to the state government later this year with a decision made before Christmas, according to a statement made by Moreton Resources to the media late last year. 

If it was given the green light, the majority of Mr Larsen’s 245 hectare dryland property would be sacrificed.

He has previously yielded two tonne/acre with popcorn and peanuts but said he had never seen his crops as good as this year thanks to the positive season.

Mr Larsen’s biggest concern is the impact on quality of life along with air and water contamination.

With his four children working away, Mr Larsen said he didn’t plan on retiring from farming anytime soon.

Despite his age, he works full time on the property in red soil stained Dunlop Volleys, applying pig manure and lime to soils and weeding by handheld hoe where possible. 

“It’s tough for anybody...but it’s bad enough for us,” he said.

“We want to live here until we die if possible. We were counting on farms being our super if we had to leave the place for some reason.”

While their land sits above mineral resources, Mr Larsen said previous engineers had found the coal to be of a “crappy” standard.

The Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group want to see the coal mine stopped.

Spokesman John Dalton said the Land Court decision against stage three of New Acland gave them some confidence at stopping the mine.

“The fact that there was a judge somewhere in Queensland who would note the importance of underground water for agriculture but more importantly would also use the term intergenerational equity to describe the value of leaving resources in the ground,” he said.

“That kind of thinking of the future, acknowledging that future generations might be better custodians of those resources, we thought was a really perceptive and somewhat surprising expression of values.”

He said even if they did beat Moreton Resources, they wanted to see a legislative change to the approval process.

“There should also be priority agricultural areas and priority living areas where a community says look our relative advantage geographically is in agriculture not coal,” he said.