No CSG Overflow

a poem by Michael Cox, 2020.

I had written them an email which included lots of detail
Sent to Santos CEO in Sydney months ago
Said people are not willing to countenance the drilling
In the heartland of the Namoi where the flood plains overflow

And the answer as expected said my plea would be rejected
And I think the same was written by someone from PR
‘Twas all about the dollar while no science or no scholar
Should halt the march of progress and that’s just how it ARE

In my wild erratic fancy I’d hoped perhaps by chance they
Would favour rich green pastures over desiccated earth.
And the water shed a-draining took a million years of raining
For a hit of short term-ism imagine what that’s worth

It’s a fact that isn’t heeded that this gas is just not needed
There’s a glut already out there and Renewables stand tall
The forest and the farmland wrap the landscape like a garland
An "extractivation" nightmare spreads its foulness over all

The farmers and the greenies young old and in-betweenies
Businesses and drovers from Wee Waa to Boggabri
See greenhouse debt accruing and toxic gasses spewing
Through the open window floating from the plains of Narrabri

And the heartfelt deputations of custodian First Nations
Whose deep-time profound entwinement with this land demands respect 
And resulting salination and the leached contamination  
A landscape that is hollowed out an aquifer that’s wrecked

And in place of lowing cattle I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the drilling rigs and pipelines and community despair
And the threat that we are facin’ to the Great Artesian Basin
To the clean and green alternatives this fracking can’t compare

And the bush hath native fauna the ring tail we should warn her
Of the coming degradation of her lovely bushland home
Where we’d see the vision ugly replace koalas snuggly
With contaminated wasteland where the spotted quoll did roam

And I somehow rather fancy that this drilling is too chancy
It’s time to lock the gate now where the western drill rigs go
And send them all a-packing! Put an end to all this fracking!
For the country life has values ask Clancy of the Overflow