Dad and I drove about 4 1/2 hours to a place called Tara over the weekend. The local residents up that way have been battling the gas companies who by law have the right to come on to their properties and start mining for gas.

Obviously this creates a lot of problems for the land owners. Firstly in money terms, the land becomes unsaleable and the compensation that's offered is inadequate. Also there are great concerns about the potential environmental impacts. Thing is, the legislation is constructed in a way that it's incredibly difficult for anyone to do anything about this. I suppose what got Dad and I particularly interested is that the gas companies intend to set up mines all over Australia including the national parks and forestry around where we live.

There are thousands upon thousands of gas wells in the USA and the recent documentary 'Gaslands' has a good look at that. It's scary to think a similar scenario could happen right in our own backyards.

I've actually forgotten this guy's name but he'd travelled about 350km to come and see what was happening too. He's gazing down one of the 10m wide tree clearings where they intend to lay a gas pipeline.