Three women from the “Knitting Nannas” anti-coal seam gas group have been charged after chaining themselves by the neck to a wastewater plant gate in northern New South Wales.

The women locked themselves on to the gates of the Santos Leewood Water treatment plant south of Narrabri on Monday morning. The treatment plant will support 850 CSG wells above the Great Artesian Basin.

Up to 60 anti-CSG demonstrators joined the women onsite at 7am.

Angela Dalu, 70, from NSW’s Northern Rivers region, Gloucester resident Dominique Jacobs, 51, and Lismore resident Theresa Mason, 48, were removed with bolt cutters just after 9am.

They were later charged with obstructing traffic and failure to comply with police direction. The women did not resist arrest, local police said.

All three “Nannas” can be seen in photographs knitting while chained.

“I’ve never been involved in protests in my life before the coal seam gas threat came to my home town of Gloucester,” said Jacobs, a mother of seven.

“As a mother I cannot stand back and let this destructive industry roll out across our state.”

Knitting Nannas spokeswoman Letitia Kemister said the group would protest “every single day” until the project is halted.

She said the Basin and surrounding agricultural land would be protected at all costs.



“If we put 850 gas wells into the region, we’re going to have a methane mess,” Kemister said.

Knitting Nannas co-founder Clare Twomey said the act of knitting was intended to show the group’s sense of maternal nurturing.

“We really needed a vehicle for women who wanted to do something for the [anti-CSG] movement,” Twomey said.

She said people of all ages were welcome to join the group.

A Santos spokeswoman said the company was confident its project retained full community support.