Five landholders were joined by a Moree Plains shire councillor, a National Party member and a NSW Farmers’ Association representative for the coal seam gas meeting at Narrabri yesterday.

Moree farmer Dan Reardon said the meeting was productive and allowed landholders to go through issues concerning them.

Dan and his wife, Rebecca, are third-generation farmers on the 2225-hectare family dryland cropping and sheep property Lairdoo, on the Terry Hie Hie Rd.

“We basically went through the main concerns from landholders with regards to having information available to us with what’s going on with petroleum licences on our properties,” Mr Reardon said.

Mr Hartcher gave people at the meeting updates on what the government was doing, particularly on new policies on aquifer interference and agricultural impact statements. “We wanted to reiterate that landholders want to be treated more equally than we have been,” Mr Reardon said.

“As landholders our main focus is that we want the ability to say no, if we don’t want coal seam gas mining on our properties.”

Mr Reardon said work was still being done to set up a Moree consultative committee for coal seam gas.

He said the landholders hoped to have the opportunity to speak with the minister in the future for updates.

“We hope that we’ll be able to have his ear down the track,” Mr Reardon said.

“We want to be treated as equally as possible to the mining community, and to protect our rights, our land and our water.”