The coupling of Greens co-founder Drew Hutton and radio shock jock Alan Jones has taken aback plenty of observers.

It was the looming presence of coal seam gas wells in prime agricultural land on Queensland's Darling Downs that brought the ideological opposites together.

Former premier Peter Beattie says you would never think the pair "would be in bed with one another".

"Drew Hutton and Alan Jones on the one side? That would, at one point, have been totally unimaginable," he told Australian Story.

But the pair, who both started life in small country towns on the Darling Downs, go back 40 years.

Mr Hutton was the school captain of the exclusive Brisbane Grammar School when Jones, just a couple of years older, began working at the school as Hutton's boarding house master and athletics coach.

"Drew stood out. He was very gifted academically and a sportsman of really almost incomparable standard," Jones said.

Alan Jones (in suit) and Drew Hutton (left, sitting) in their school days ( Supplied )

"Brilliant tennis player, we won GPS premierships with him as a tennis player, he won a GPS hurdles championship, he won a GPS 400 championship."

Mr Hutton says "Jonesy" was "very influential".

"I was the ideal person to coach because I loved to work hard, and he was the ideal coach because he would insist on the hard work," he said.

Between hurdles, they would talk politics.

"In those days Alan was a Labor supporter, which was interesting," Mr Hutton said.

They kept in touch for a few years after school, with Jones attending Mr Hutton's first wedding.

But then Jones moved to Sydney before moving on to work for Malcolm Fraser – a move he says "would have driven Drew spare".

"Meanwhile, Drew moved over to what was perceived to be the mad left," Jones added.

Decades later, the pair reconnected over what was happening at their old home towns.

Drew Hutton competes in a hurdles race while Alan Jones (in white, pointed out in the crowd) cheers on ( Supplied )

In about 2010, Mr Hutton formed the Lock The Gate campaign to help farmers on the Darling Downs keep coal seam gas companies off their land.

"Then out of the blue I got a phone call from Alan's producer asking if I was prepared to talk to him on air," he said.

"I knew that Alan was upset about what had happened to his old hometown of Acland, which had been taken over by a coal mining company."

Jones, who says the companies "destroyed the joint", says Mr Hutton told him that was only part of the story.

"And he showed me these plans for coal seam gas fields all over the Darling Downs and I just simply couldn't believe it, so I decided to get vocal," Jones said.

Newman 'dead scared of Jones'

Mr Hutton says Jones has been "essential to the whole Lock The Gate campaign because he has enormous influence in the conservative area of politics".

"He can ring up the premier of New South Wales any time and get a response," he said.

"The Premier of Queensland Campbell Newman's dead scared of Alan Jones. He gets up on a platform and people listen to him. That's good for us."

A Lock the Gate signs hang on a fence in Gunnedah, north-east NSW ( ABC News: Alan Arthur )

The Lock The Gate campaign is now focusing on prime farming areas in NSW slated for CSG exploration.

In May, a Lock The Gate blockade at Metgasco's Bentley site in the Northern Rivers region of NSW swelled to 2,000 protesters – including greenies and farmers – causing the State Government to suspend Metgasco's licence on the grounds that it did not adequately consult the local community.

Former Greens leader Bob Brown says that "as a people power movement, it's been very successful".

Metgasco is currently appealing the decision and, pending the outcome, plan to move back into the region. A ruling is expected in October.

The full story can be seen on Australian Story at 8:00pm on ABC