Friday, April 20

Vines v mines

Farmers and grape growers across the Hunter will take to the streets of Sydney next month as part of a rally opposing coal seam gas exploration in the vineyards.

Residents, farmers and grape growers from Broke, Bulga, Fordwich, Belford, Lovedale and Pokolbin will join the march to Parliament House on May 1 to put a stop to coal seam gas mining in the valley.
 
“If the coal seam gas exploration continues then it could change the whole of the Hunter Valley grape industry,” Broke grape grower and member of the Hunter Valley Protection Alliance Graeme Gibson said.
 
“The vineyards themselves are reliant on climate and soil, and if this changes the grapes will change and so will the wine, and some of the grapes here in the Hunter don’t exist anywhere else in the world.”
 
Mr Gibson said the alliance’s main concern is water, followed by the potential destruction of the area.
 
“Firstly, our concerns are water. Not only ground water and fresh water aquifers but what coal seam gas exploration will bring back up out of the ground,” he said.

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Maitland Mercury

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