Local activist David Townes – who manned the the stand on the corner of Logan and High Streets – said the particular emphasis of the action was to raise national awareness about the impact of these industries on water resources.

“The necessity for public awareness and action is pressing,” he said.

“In Queensland alone some 40,000 CSG wells have been approved for drilling. Among other dangerous chemical produced by these wells are the carcinogenic benzene and toluene.

“Farmers are expressing grave fears that these contaminants have entered the aquifers of the Great Artisian Basin, contaminating that vast underground water resource. The basin lies beneath 22 per cent of Australia, the ‘water4life’ for farms and communities stretching from the Northern Territory through Queensland, NSW, and into South Australia.”

Mr Townes said the urgency for awareness with action has been exampled in Chinchilla, Queensland, where a CSG facility has contaminated vast sways of Darling Downs farmland.

“Damage to 20 farms in the area is reported as now being irreversible. An evacuation caution zone has been put on 80 farming families within 320 square kilometres of the facility. In February of this year that zone was extended another 20km to the south.

“Queensland farmers are warning that their bores have not only run dry but are bubbling methane gas instead. The next generation of young Australians is relying on us; hence the Water4life national highway action. Join us next time.”

Knitting Nannas Against Gas’s Felicity Cahill also manned a highway protest at her location in Drake.