Invitation to Introductory Meeting

A hand-delivered, un-adressed letters in plain white envelopes from Ms. Hind Kourouche, Sydney Gas LTD appeared in some mailboxes on Saturday 21 April, 2007. The area affected seems to be the end of the Inlet Road, Bulga near the Core Bore 3 location. Interestingly the letter was dated 16th of April. A printable copy of the letter in the PDF format can be obtained here. The text of the letter, as translated from the image by OCR software, goes as follows:

16 April 2007

Hello,

INTRODUCTORY MEETING

My name is Hind Kourouche, Community and Land Manager for Sydney Gas; my community role primarily interfaces with residents of the Hunter Valley and its surrounding townships to build community relations and awareness.

I am writing to invite you to contact me formally or informally at your leisure.

My presence in the valley over the last seven months has been intended to engage business and community leaders, interested community members or individuals and to raise awareness about Sydney Gas's planned exploration activities.

Sydney Gas aims to be a good corporate citizen. Seeking input consisting of constructive comments, feedback, queries and other matters relevant to exploration is an important and relevant part of our community consultation.

Mid last year my peers consulted with numerous associations including the Broke Bulga Landcare Group, Broke Bush Fire Brigade, Broke Fordwich Tourism Association, Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association, Wollombi Catchments Water Users' Association and the Broke Hall and Village Fair Committee. We would like to rebuild communication with these and other groups to share updates on developments, understand new items or issues and share other relevant information.

This process forms part of identifying not only the needs of the community but also an analysis for productive ways to contribute to the viable growing community in the Hunter Valley and associate our planned activities with the community's vision, goals and future prosperity.

Please don't hesitate to contact me on mobile 0448 453 310 or the office 9253 5555 to organise an appointment for a discussion regarding our exploration activities in the Hunter. I look forward to our meeting in the near future.

Yours sincerely
SYDNEY GAS LTD

[hand-written signature]

Hind Kourouche
Community and Land Manager

Comments:

A very strange letter indeed. Sounds like if someone from a very high authority came down to talk to the peasants. All very nice, kind and friendly but definitively from high above. Like some poor supplicants we are supposed to ask Ms. Kourouche for an audience. Yet she is not from a higher authority. Sydney Gas is just a small, loss-making exploration company trying to make money from our land. There is nothing we need from them, indeed there nothing they can give us.

Then why the sudden interest. They are ready to bring a drilling rig to the Inlet Road without consulting anyone but Mr. Jessop, who volunteered his land anyway. Ms. Kourouche has been here for over seven months, wined and dined everyone in Singleton, consulted bushfire brigades but not the land owners who may be directly affected by their activities. Perhaps she feels that she missed something and wants to fill the gaps before the rig starts to work and the locals realise what they are in for.

Once again, this is a continuation in the pattern of disinformation, spin, smoke and mirrors. They are not interested in genuine community consultation, but they want to be seen involved with the local residents. Every letter and phone call will be carefully recorded to prove to the Government how great corporate citizen Sydney Gas really is. Of course, a dossier like this would be invaluable at the project approval time. Unfortunately, so far Sydney Gas has not answered any of the serious questions concerning the threats to the local environment and property values that HBGAG presented to them.