Set against the backdrop of the food versus energy debate, Felton producers say it;s another example of pockets of affected rural people taking on the seemingly all-powerful mine lobby.

With gas pipelines already running across increasing numbers of properties and disrupting both farming and cropping operations, the news that an open-cut coal mine stands to be developed at Felton has been greeted with dismay by about 100 property owners.

The Friends of Felton, and its chair Rob McCreath, says a multi-million-tonne-a-year-plus coal mining venture proposed by the Brisbane-based Ambre Energy organisation first surfaced in February of this year and triggered immediate concern.

Quite apart from a raft of mining-related issues, it's the scale of the proposed enterprise that has local producers worried.

With about 2,500ha of valuable country likely to be affected, the impact on local infrastructure remains a top-of-mind issue.

"There's huge alarm in the district," Mr McCreath said.

"We are we worried about the destruction of that hillside, we are worried about dust, we are worried about our bores drying up when they (Ambre Energy) interrupt the underground aquifers,

"As well, we are worried about polluting the local creek and the Condamine River as the coal will be washed with 'salty' coal seam methane water," Mr McCreath added.

But a recently-issued statement by Ambre Energy notes it has advised both landowners and State Government that its coal-to-liquid fuels and power project has been "substantially revised" with a semi-commercial, first-stage, demonstration plant earmarked for construction – to prove the new technologies.

As a result some 730,000 tonnes a year will stem from the new coal mining operation, plus it says the demonstration project will no longer include a coal washing plant, or the application of Ambre Energy's proprietary hybrid energy technology for the production of synthetic crude oil.

The company's statement goes on to say the main emphasis for the revised project will be to advance the company's clean coal technology for the production of electricity and dimethyl ether, or DME.

The production of 645,000L/day of DME will, says Ambre Energy, provide a 'clean next generation fuel' that it describes as LPG for diesel engines.

And moving the process plant to the western side of Hodgson Creek, principally to overcome flood-related issues, also is designed to allay the fears of local producers.

Mr McCreath says nobody ever wants an open-cut coal mine in their backyard and the local community would continue to oppose the project.

"A line needs to be draw over the impacts these projects have on local communities, their roads, etc," he said.

This viewpoint is echoed by the Local Government Association of Queensland which recently queried the effects of the resources boom across a swag of rural and regional councils.

Councils have been urged to "engage early" with mining companies, according to need Gladstone City Council's director of commercial and community services, Cale Dendle.

"In small communities, people know when strangers are in town punching holes in the ground and then the rumour mill starts," he said when speaking at the LGAQ's recent annual conference.

Mayors and councillors from several towns in mining areas warned that high expectations of economic boom times had been replaced by disquiet and disapproval as 12-hour shifts worked over four consecutive days, fly-in, fly-out employment, or variations such as drive-in or bus-in, often left local communities with costs but no benefits.

SOURCE: Queensland Country Life.