By Sebastian Sinclair

A group of 150 farmers this week met on Wednesday to discuss the implications of Queensland Bauxite’s proposal to mine their land.

Following Wednesday’s meeting, farmers from the Kingaroy region in southeast Queensland confirmed they would join others in the Lock the Gate Campaign.

The campaign hopes to preserve farmer’s interests against what they consider the exploration and extraction of fossil fuels on their land.

Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group secretary John Dalton says residents and farmers are fed up and need to take action.

“As a result of the meeting, local residents have resolved to lock the gate and not to co-operate with Queensland Bauxite’s requests for access to discuss exploration or begin drilling,” he said.

“If the government of the day considers it a good idea to consider transforming rare fertile farms into a bauxite mine, then they should come up here and explain.

“The rest of the world is concerned about securing future food sources and our government is thinking of trading it in so we can buy cheap mag wheels from China.”

QBL’s chief operating officer Mark Derriman attended the meeting in hopes of reassuring landholders.

He says no investigation will be undertaken unless given express permission to do so.

“Once we’ve completed our preliminary exploration ourselves, the government, the landowners are all in a better position to make a call on what the next stage will be,” he said.

“I can say categorically that the only time at the moment that we’ll enter onto anybody’s land is if we have permission.

“That’s just the right thing to do.”