In Queensland’s food bowl, farmers fear the gas bores from next door

Zena Ronnfeldt in front of one of the CSG wells drilled in 2018 under her property ‘Bogaroo’ at Kupunn, from neighbouring Arrow Energy-owned property. The Queensland government is investigating whether Arrow drilled diagonal wells under multiple people’s land without notifying them. Photograph: David Kelly/The Guardian

The black soil sinks and then swells around Zena Ronnfeldt’s boots as she steps through rows of cotton on her property near Dalby in Queensland’s Darling Downs. “The soil is just so great, we can grow a dozen different crops here,” Ronnfeldt says.

“We have mung beans and chickpeas, cotton, corn, wheat, barley, and silage for feedlots. If we needed to, we could grow vegetables under irrigation. It’s just a food bowl.”