Conflict over water use in the Liverpool Plains/Namoi River region of the Murray-Darling Basin

Last year when teaching VCE Unit 3, Area of Study 1, I gathered information for a new case study of conflict over the use of water in the Murray-Darling Basin region. I usually set students a research task to examine a case study of conflict. This information is then presented by students to the class and forms part of the material to be assessed in one of their SACs. Information on coal seam gas is now readily available from a variety of sources. This article focusses on conflict in the Liverpool Plains / Namoi River region. Another possible location to research is the Darling Downs region where the Condamine River runs through one of Australia's most developed coal seam gas fields in the Tara area of southern Queensland.