THE Queensland leader of Katter's Australian Party, Aidan McLindon, has joined an anti-coal-seam-gas blockade south of Brisbane.

Local landowners and anti-CSG campaigners from Queensland and NSW set up the protest site on a farm at Kerry, near Beaudesert, early yesterday, preventing Arrow Energy from doing exploratory CSG drilling.

Twelve people have been arrested at the site and charged with contravening a police direction. They will all face Beaudesert Magistrates Court next month.

Mr McLindon, a former LNP member and sitting Beaudesert MP, said he had joined the blockade because he shared the residents' concerns about the mining practice.

"The coal seam gas threat has well and truly reached the heart of the Scenic Rim as the foreign-owned company, Arrow Energy, rolls out its exploration permits," Mr McLindon said today.

"I am proud to stand by the local community that I was elected to represent in their fight against this flawed industry.

"(Premier) Anna Bligh and (Opposition Leader) Campbell Newman have both turned a blind eye to this industry which is devastating prime rural land in a region which provides tourism and agriculture."

Earlier today, NSW schoolteacher Daniel Robins scaled a 7m drill rig and refused to come down until he had spoken to an Arrow executive.

"I came here with a documentary film maker, and both of us said that we definitely didn't want to get arrested today, we just wanted to help the community," he said via mobile phone.

"Then the police moved everyone out of the way and drilling was going to commence ... and I jumped the fence and climbed up here.

"It was the only way I could see that was going to stop the drilling and it has."

Mr Robins said the protesters wanted baseline water tests to be conducted on local aquifers before drilling was allowed to begin.

"We need to know what is in there now, because after drilling, once it's contaminated we have to know who is responsible," he said.

An Arrow Energy spokesman said the wells being drilled at the site were being used to obtain geological information and were not to be used in gas production.

Organisers believe protesters from other CSG sites, like Tara, near Chinchilla, and across the border in NSW, will head to Kerry to join the blockade.

"When one goes to war, we all go to war," organiser Heidi Ross said.

"The weekend should be very interesting."

Protesters are buoyed by the success of a 19-day blockade of a Santos well in NSW last month, which led to the company suspending activities at the site and striking a deal with farmers.

The group said the community had been forced to take direct action to protect its water supplies which were vital to agriculture, the residents and the area's ecology.

Spokesman Innes Larkin said farmers were concerned that if water was contaminated by CSG development there would be no way to prove it unless immediate base line studies were done.

They plan to stay at the blockage until Arrow Energy agrees to their demands for independent water testing before further drilling.

"We also want the company to commit to independent assessment of our water supplies - which lead to Brisbane and the Gold Coast - and public ownership of the results," he said.

The blockade follows a vote earlier this week by the Somerset Council, based at Esk, to try to ban coal seam gas and coal mining from within its boundaries because of fears it may impact the Wivenhoe and Somerset dams.

Meanwhile, Premier Anna Bligh said yesterday she was "mystified" by a council's decision to declare a moratorium on coal seam gas mining and coal exploration.

Somerset Regional Council unanimously passed a resolution on Wednesday declaring the region a "no go" area for the two activities.

It is the first municipality to make such a declaration, and follows moves from the neighbouring Scenic Rim Council to seek a ban on the mining practices.

Ms Bligh said her Government had issued an exclusion zone across southeast Queensland preventing CSG exploration and mining, which was now subject to a parliamentary inquiry.

The Premier said she was "mystified" by the council's move.

"Firstly they have no power to do it, and secondly it's already been done by the State Government," she said.

"So either they've been completely unaware of this, which is, of course, completely impossible because they were actively consulted."

But Somerset Mayor Graeme Lehmann said the exclusion zone was not enough.

"I don't think it goes nearly far enough," he said.

"We're the biggest land mass in southeast Queensland. I've seen the damage that mining has done to other communities, and the last thing we want is for it to bugger up our lifestyle.

"It's the whole of the community that we have to keep in mind.

"The decision comes down to the State Government, but we have to let the community know that we're batting for them."

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche said the council's move was political grandstanding.

"The minerals and energy resources under the ground belong to the people of Queensland, and we elect state governments to make decisions on the best use of those resources for the benefit of all Queenslanders," Mr Roche said.

"There are 150 employees of mining and gas companies living in the Somerset Regional Council area, injecting some $17 million worth of spending power into the region."

Council and state elections are due to be held later this year.

Originally published as Katter's man joins CSG protest