The Great Artesian Basin: A Contested Resource Environment of Subterranean Water and Coal Seam Gas in Australia

Society and Natural Resources

Volumn 29, Issue 6, 2016, Pages 696-710

  de Rijke, Kim ^a   Munro, Paul ^b   Zurita, Maria de Lourdes Melo ^c,d  

^a UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND   (Australia)

^b UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES   (Australia)

^c UNIVERSITY OF THE SUNSHINE COAST   (Australia)

^d MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Fracking; great Artesian Basin; natural resource extraction; unconventional gas; underground; water

Indexed keywords

COAL SEAM; EXTRACTION; GAS FIELD; HYDRAULIC FRACTURING; NATURAL RESOURCE; SUBTERRANEAN ENVIRONMENT;

AUSTRALIA; GREAT ARTESIAN BASIN; QUEENSLAND;

EID: 84958037557     PISSN: 08941920     EISSN: 15210723     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2015.1122133     Document Type: Article

References (73)

1. K.Bakker, 2012. Water: Political, biopolitical, material. Social Studies of Science 42 (4):616–23. doi:10.1177/0306312712441396
2. J.Bennett, 2010. A vitalist stopover on the way to a new materialism. In New materialisms. Ontology, agency and politics, ed. D.Coole and S.Frost 47–69. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
3. M.Blaser, 2009. The threat of the Yrmo: The political ontology of a sustainable hunting program. American Anthropologist 111 (1):10–20. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2009.01073.x
4. N.Boivin, 2004. From veneration to exploitation. Human engagement with the mineral world. In Soil, stones and symbols. Cultural perceptions of the mineral world, ed. N.Boivin and M.Owoc, 1–30. London, UK: Routledge.
5. B.Braun, 2000. Producing vertical territory: Geology and governmentality in late Victorian Canada. Cultural Geographies 7 (1):7–46. doi:10.1177/096746080000700102
6. D.Cameron, 2012. Coal seam gas. Interaction 40 (2):12–18.
7. M.Carey, 2012. Coal seam gas: Future bonanza or toxic legacy? Viewpoint 8:26–31.
8. I.Clark,, and L.Brake. 2009. Using local knowledge to improve understanding of groundwater supplies in parts of arid South Australia. GeoJournal 74 (5):441–50. doi:10.1007/s10708-008-9236-7
9. K.de Rijke, 2013a. The agri-gas fields of Australia: Black soil, food, and unconventional gas. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment 35 (1):41–53. doi:10.1111/cuag.12004
10. K.de Rijke, 2013b. Coal seam gas and social impact assessment: An anthropological contribution to current debates and practices. Journal of Economic and Social Policy 15 (3):3.
11. K.de Rijke, 2013c. Hydraulically fractured: Unconventional gas and anthropology. Anthropology Today 29 (2):13–17.
12. G.Deleuze,, and F.Guattari. (1980) 1987. A thousand plateaus. Capitalism and schizophrenia, trans. B. Massumi, Minneapolis, MN: Bloomsbury Publishing.
13. A.I.Dijk,, H.E.Beck, R.S.Crosbie, R.A.Jeu, Y.Y.Liu, G.M.Podger, B.Timbal, and N.R.Viney. 2013. The Millennium Drought in southeast Australia (2001–2009): Natural and human causes and implications for water resources, ecosystems, economy, and society. Water Resources Research 49 (2):1040–57. doi:10.1002/wrcr.20123
14. Essential Research. 2014. The essential report 15 July 2014. Sydney, Australia: Essential Media Communications.
15. R.J.Fairfax,, and R.J.Fensham. 2002. In the footsteps of J. Alfred Griffiths: A cataclysmic history of Great Artesian Basin springs in Queensland, Australia. Australian Geographical Studies 40 (2):210–30. doi:10.1111/1467-8470.00175
16. R.Fensham, 2006. Spring wetlands of the Great Artesian Basin. Paper for the 2006 Australian State of the Environment Committee, Department of Environment and Heritage, Canberra. http://www.deh.gov.au/soe/2006/emerging/wetlands/index.html (accessed December 16, 2014).
17. R.Fensham,, and R.J.Fairfax. 2003a. Great Artesian Basin spring in Southern Queensland 1911–2000. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 49 (1):285–93.
18. R.Fensham,, and R.J.Fairfax. 2003b. Spring wetlands of the Great Artesian Basin, Queensland, Australia. Wetlands Ecology and Management 11 (5):343–62. doi:10.1023/b:wetl.0000005532.95598.e4
19. M.H.Finewood,, and L.J.Stroup. 2012. Fracking and the neoliberalization of the hydro-social cycle in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education 147 (1):72–79. doi:10.1111/j.1936-704x.2012.03104.x
20. L.M.Gibbs, 2009a. Just add water: Colonisation, water governance, and the Australian inland. Environment and Planning A 21:2964–83. doi:10.1068/a41214
21. L.M.Gibbs, 2009b. Water places: Cultural, social and more-than-human geographies of nature. Scottish Geographical Journal 125 (3–4):361–69. doi:10.1080/14702540903364393
22. H.Goodall, 2008. Riding the tide: Indigenous knowledge, history and water in a changing Australia. Environment and History 14:355–84. doi:10.3197/096734008x333563
23. M.A.Habermehl, 2006. The Great Artesian Basin, Australia. In Non-renewable groundwater resources: A guide book on socially sustainable management for water-policy makers, ed. S.Forster, and D.P.Loucks, 82–88. Paris, France: UNESCO.
24. T.Halihan,, A.Love, M.Keppel, and V.Berens. 2013. Analysis of subsurface mound spring connectivity in shale of the western margin of the Great Artesian Basin, South Australia. Hydrogeology Journal 21 (7):1605–17. doi:10.1007/s10040-013-1034-8
25. A.Herczeg, 2011. Groundwater. In Water: Science and solutions for Australia, ed. I.Prosser, 47–60. Canberra, Australia: CSIRO Publishing.
26. J.Hill, 2011. The Great Artesian Basin sustainability initiative—A decade of success and beyond. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 34th World Congress of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Research and Engineering: 33rd Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium and 10th Conference on Hydraulics in Water Engineering, Brisbane, Australia, June.
27. C.Jacobson,, K.F.D.Hughey, A.J.Lynch, M.Nursey-Bray, M.O’Connell, P.G.Munro, K.Vella, D.Whiley, S.Dovers, and R.W.Carter. 2014. Twenty years of pacifying responses to environmental management. Australasian Journal of Environmental Management 21 (2):143–74. doi:10.1080/14486563.2014.917594
28. F.Krause,, and V.Strang. 2013. Introduction to special issue “Living water.” Worldviews 17:95–102.
29. F.Krause,, and V.Strang. 2016. Thinking relationships through water. Society and Natural Resources 29:633–8.
30. B.Latour, 2005. Reassembling the social. An introduction to actor-network theory. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
31. J.Linton, 2010. What is water? The history of a modern abstraction. Vancouver, BC, Canada: UBC Press.
32. J.Linton, 2014. Modern water and its discontents: A history of hydrosocial renewal. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water 1 (1):111–20. doi:10.1002/wat2.1009
33. J.Linton,, and J.Budds. 2014. The hydrosocial cycle: Defining and mobilizing a relational-dialectical approach to water. Geoforum 57:170–80. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.10.008
34. J.Lorimer, 2010. Moving image methodologies for more-than-human geographies. Cultural Geographies 17:237–58. doi:10.1177/1474474010363853
35. H.Luke,, D.Lloyd, W.Boyd, and K.D.ExterK. den. 2014. Unconventional gas development: Why a regional community said no. Geographical Research 52 (3):263–79. doi:10.1111/1745-5871.12071
36. R.Lyster, 2012. Coal seam gas in the context of global energy and climate change scenarios. Environmental and Planning Law Journal 29 (2):91–100.
37. R.J.Martin,, and D.Trigger. 2015. ‘Nothing never change’: Mapping land, water and aboriginal identity in the changing environments of northern Australia’s Gulf Country. Settler Colonial Studies 5 (4):317–33. doi:10.1080/2201473x.2014.1000906
38. A.Mercer,, K.de Rijke, and W.Dressler. 2014. Silences in the boom: Coal seam gas, neoliberalizing discourse, and the future of regional Australia. Journal of Political Ecology 21:222–348.
39. G.M.Mudd, 2000. Mound springs of the Great Artesian Basin in South Australia: A case study from Olympic Dam. Environmental Geology 39 (5):463–76. doi:10.1007/s002540050452
40. National Water Commission. 2010. Coal seam gas and water: Position statement. http://www.nwc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/9723/Coal_Seam_Gas.pdf (accessed November 26, 2014).
41. J.C.Noble,, M.A.Habermehl, C.D.James, J.Landsberg, A.C.Langston, and S.R.Morton. 1998. Biodiversity implications of water management in the Great Artesian Basin. Rangeland Journal 20 (2):275–300. doi:10.1071/rj9980275
42. NSW Government. 2011. General Purpose Standing Committee No. 5—Inquiry into coal seam gas, at Narrabri on Wednesday 16 November 2011: Transcript. https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/67b90644e19c9c3eca25794c0014c45d/$FILE/Transcript%20-%2016%20November%202011%20-%20CORRECTED.pdf (accessed February 8, 2016).
43. A.B.Patterson, 1896. Song of the Artesian water. The Bulletin 17:10.
44. N.Peterson, 1972. Totemism yesterday: Sentiment and local organisation among the Australian aborigines. Man 7:12–32. doi:10.2307/2799853
45. C.Petus,, M.Lewis, and D.White. 2013. Monitoring temporal dynamics of Great Artesian Basin wetland vegetation, Australia, using MODIS NDVI. Ecological Indicators 34 (1):41–52. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.04.009
46. P.Phelps, 2012. General Purpose Standing Committee No. 5. Report: Coal Seam Gas (pp. 13624). Hansard Transcript—12 August: NSW Legislative Council. http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LC20120814088?open&refNavID=LC6_1 (accessed February 8, 2016).
47. W.F.Ponder, 1986. Mound springs of the great artesian basin. In Limnology in Australia, ed. P.De Deckker and W.D.Williams, 403–20. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
48. J.M.Powell, 1991. Plains of promise rivers of destiny: Water management and the development of Queensland 1824–1990. Bowen Hills, QLD, Australia: Boolarong Publication.
49. O.C.Powell, 2011. Great Artesian Basin: Water from deeper down. In Queensland historical atlas: Histories, cultures, landscapes.http://www.qhatlas.com.au/great-artesian-basin-water-deeper-down (accessed February 8, 2016).
50. O.C.Powell, 2012. Song of the Artesian water: Aridity, drought and disputation along Queensland’s pastoral frontier in Australia. Rangeland Journal 34 (3):305–17. doi:10.1071/rj12014
51. O.C.Powell,, J.Silcock, and R.Fensham. 2015. Oases to oblivion: The rapid demise of springs in the South-Eastern Great Artesian Basin, Australia. Groundwater 53 (1):171–78. doi:10.1111/gwat.12147
52. Queensland Government, Department of Natural Resources, and Mines. 2014. Benefits of CSG and LNG. https://www.dnrm.qld.gov.au/mining/coal-seam-gas/about/benefits (accessed November 26, 2014).
53. RATRC. 2011. Management of the Murray Darling Basin interim report: The impact of mining coal seam gas on the management of the Murray Darling Basin. Commonwealth of Australia 2011 Rural Affairs and Transport References Committee. http://www.aph.gov.au/~/media/wopapub/senate/committee/rrat_ctte/completed_inquiries/2010-13/mdb/interim_report/report.ashx (accessed February 8, 2016).
54. T.Richardson, 2014. The politics of multiplication in a failed Soviet irrigation project, or, how Sasyk has been kept from the sea. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology 81:1–27. doi:10.1080/00141844.2014.940990
55. T.Richardson,, and G.Weszkalnys. 2014. Introduction: Resource materialities. Anthropological Quarterly 87 (1):5–30. doi:10.1353/anq.2014.0007
56. R.Robins, 1998. Archaeological investigations at Youlain springs, Southwest Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, Culture 1 (1):57–74.
57. RPS. 2011. Onshore co-produced water: Extent and management. Waterlines Report. Canberra, Australia: National Water Commission.
58. H.V.Scott, 2008. Colonialism, landscape and the subterranean. Geography Compass 2 (6):1853–69. doi:10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00164.x
59. B.Shaw, 1995. Our heart is the land: Aboriginal reminiscences from the Western Lake Eyre Basin. Canberra, Australia: Aboriginal Studies Press.
60. M.Sherval,, and K.Hardiman. 2014. Competing perceptions of the rural Idyll: Responses to threats from coal seam gas development in Gloucester, NSW, Australia. Australian Geographer 45 (2):185–203. doi:10.1080/00049182.2014.899028
61. M.Shortland, 1994. Darkness visible: Underground culture in the golden age of geology. History of Science 31 (1):1–61. doi:10.1177/007327539403200101
62. V.Strang, 2004. The meaning of water. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers.
63. V.Strang, 2005. Water works: Agency and creativity in the Mitchell River catchment. Australian Journal of Anthropology 16 (3):366–81. doi:10.1111/j.1835-9310.2005.tb00317.x
64. V.Strang, 2014a. Fluid consistencies. Material relationality in human engagements with water. Archaeological Dialogues 21 (2):133–50. doi:10.1017/s1380203814000130
65. V.Strang, 2014b. The Taniwha and the Crown: Defending water rights in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water 1:121–31. doi:10.1002/wat2.1002
66. E.Swyngedouw, 1996. The city as a hybrid: On nature, society and cyborg urbanization. Capitalism Nature Socialism 7:65–80. doi:10.1080/10455759609358679
67. 2O: The contested terrain of water privatization. Capitalism Nature Socialism 16 (1):81–98. doi:10.1080/1045575052000335384
68. C.Tilley, 2007. Materiality in materials. Archaeological Dialogues 14 (1):16–20. doi:10.1017/s1380203807002139
69. D.Trigger,, J.Keenan, K.de Rijke, and W.Rifkin. 2014. Coal seam gas in Australia: Aboriginal engagement and agreement-making with a new and rapidly developing resource industry. Extractive Industries and Society 1 (2):176–88.
70. S.Whatmore, 2002. Hybrid geographies: Natures, cultures, spaces. London: Sage.
71. S.Whatmore, 2006. Materialist returns: Practising cultural geography in and for a more-than-human world. Cultural Geographies 13:600–9. doi:10.1191/1474474006cgj377oa
72. A.Willow,, and S.Wylie. 2014. Politics, ecology, and the new anthropology of energy: Exploring the emerging frontiers of hydraulic fracking. Journal of Political Ecology 21:222–36.
73. B.Wynne, 1992. Misunderstood misunderstandings: Social identities and public uptake of science. Public Understanding of Science 1 (3):281–304.