Late last year two abseilers jumped off the side of the Illawarra's Sea Cliff Bridge and unfurled a banner which said: Stop CSG.
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They were part of a peaceful march across the bridge that drew more than 3000 men, women and children from all walks of life.
Together they were protesting against coal seam gas mining, the invasive industry that has threatened some of this region's and Australia's pristine escarpment, farming lands and underground water aquifers.
The marchers were part of a national campaign which demanded a moratorium on all approved CSG mining, a royal commission of inquiry and a ban on the controversial process called fracking.
It seems their concerns have fallen on deaf ears if the contents of a leaked government document are true.
The NSW Office of Water's aquifer interference draft policy is yet to be officially released but its content does not make for pretty reading.
Under the proposed policy, mining and gas developments will not be bound by water protection rules, allowing them to dispose of waste from coal seam gas projects by reinjecting it to an aquifer, discharging it into a river or a portable waterway.
That is fraught with danger and could cause irreparable damage to already fragile aquifers.
Farmers and CSG opponents are entitled to be angry because it appears to renege on promises made by Premier Barry O'Farrell to protect farmers.
Mr O'Farrell must butt some heads and take this unfair proposal back to the drawing board.