Managing the production of Coal Seam Gas (CSG), an ‘unconventional’ gas requiring unconventional methods of extraction, is essentially another part of managing the whole landscape. It is one more demand on the landscape, competing with production of energy, water, food, fibre, minerals, and human settlement, and with the need to maintain biodiversity to underpin the ecological functioning of the landscape itself. Fundamentally, CSG production
is no different to any other development of our landscapes. Like them, it poses risks to the condition of the water, soil, vegetation and biodiversity, and has the potential to reduce the capacity of our natural resources to supply human, as well as ecological, needs.

The report being presented at this lecture provides an analysis of coal seam gas production and natural resource management, and addresses many natural resource and environmental matters along with an overview of economic and social issues associated with exploration and production of coal seam gas in Australia.