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Queensland Government may be liable for $150m class action over UCG trial
Thursday, 1 Sep 2016 06:26:06 | Isobel Roe
Linc Energy's trial UCG plant at Chinchilla on the Darling Downs. (Landline: Pip Courtney)
The Queensland Government could be liable for a $150-million class action by farmers after an underground coal gasification (UCG) trial allegedly caused serious environmental damage.
Farmer Pamela Bender leads the class action of about 50 landholders.
Linc Energy allegedly damaged farmland near its UCG trial at Hopeland on Queensland's Darling Downs.
The company was committed to stand trial on five environmental charges but had since been placed in liquidation.
The Supreme Court yesterday ordered Linc Energy's liquidators to hand over its insurance policy documents to Ms Bender's lawyers so it could be determined whether the class action was viable.
Solicitor Tom Marland said if that did not cover the claim, they would pursue the State Government.
"I am a taxpayer so I am very concerned about it, but I am also concerned about the probity of the State Government granting licenses and not requiring the conditions be complied and met," he said.
"If we're unable to find any fruit in relation to the insurance policies well we'll just endeavour to continue our action against the State Government."
A report commissioned by the Queensland Government found Linc had caused "widespread" and in some areas "irreversible" damage to arable farmland.
Ms Bender's husband, George, took his life last year after fighting the gas industry about mining projects on and around his property.
At the time, the Bender family said George had died "from a broken heart" after fighting with some companies over coal seam gas mining on his property.
Their property Valencia is inside a 320-kilometre excavation caution zone set up around the Linc trial site in 2015.
Ms Bender and her daughter Helen Bender remain outspoken objectors to the coal seam gas and UCG industry.
The Queensland Government banned UCG activity earlier this year.
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