Tensions have boiled over after a scuffle between a coal seam gas protestor and a QGC contractor broke out at a blockade near Tara in Queensland yesterday.
Protestors from the Stop CSG Tara group stopped workers from leaving an accommodation camp at Chinchilla before blockading two buss loads full of workers at the Kenya gas field, The Chronicle reports.
Protestor Dayne Pratzky said when he and another group member blocked the bus, a QGC contractor attempted to slash a protestor's tyre.
The two men were involved in a short scuffle before onlookers broke them up.
Pratzky has since lodged a complaint with Chinchilla police.
"We have never had an incident like this before. We don't have a personal vendetta with any worker," he said.
"Our actions are directed at QGC/BG Group."
QGC spokesman sympathised with the worker’s frustration but did not condone the action.
"We can understand the frustrations of people working for us, particularly when their jobs are threatened by people who do not live in the area and who want to stop development.
"There was a minor incident this morning in which a contractor allegedly tried to damage the tyre of a protester this morning.
"However, we do not condone retaliation of this nature and will ensure the contractor is counselled."
Earlier this month Australian Mining reported that QGC’s parent company BG Group Australia chairman Catherine Tanna said thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of investment are being risked by a small group of protesters who “deliberately misinform” the public.
At the time she said many criticisms of the industry were “highly questionable and propagated without challenge to the point where activism was determining public policy”.
Protestors last month also blockaded a QGC drilling site near Miles and a Lock the Gate protestor chained herself to the company truck.