When I was asked to help organise a field trip for some international visitors from the Sisters of Mercy, I didn't expect to be involved in a memorial prayer service for Chinchilla farmer George Bender. But that's exactly what happened last Monday night.
George took his own life, ending a ten year struggle with the coal seam gas industry. In an incredible demonstration of courage and resilience, George's daughter Helen made a statement on behalf of the Bender family to the nation's media.
'In the end, George Bender died from a broken heart, at witnessing first-hand the tragedy unfolding around him. He fought to protect the air, land and water from the inevitable permanent damage that this industry is causing and has caused overseas.
'His struggles were not just for himself and his family, but for the whole country that depends on the agricultural and environmental resources unique to the Western Downs area.
'He was prepared to fight for what he truly believed in and call others to account. The tragedy is, in fighting for his country, his struggles are now his legacy, but it is the determination of those who have known and loved George Bender that his sacrifice not be forgotten.'
Earlier that afternoon I travelled in a bus through what Canadian author Naomi Klein has termed 'zones of sacrifice'. These are places where people, through no choice of their own, must endure a range of negative impacts so that extractive industries can fuel our economy.
I stood at a bore at one of George's properties, that had provided water to cattle for generations. It no longer does this. Instead, it emits continuous gas as the disruption below ground bubbles to the surface.
I heard from landholders who have to make Freedom of Information applications to get results from health tests taken on their sick children. Pastoral visits from clergy now include a jerry can of water as some residents of the gasfield simply cannot drink their own water.
Something is clearly not working here. Despite mountains of paper regulations, despite a well-resourced Gasfield Commission and Gasfield Compliance Unit, people feel abandoned. It seems that government bodies are enablers and facilitators of the industry rather than regulators and protectors of the people, the soil and the water.
As was explained to me on the bus, a farm is not just another business. It is a person's home, their superannuation, their identity, their very sense of being.
As Helen