A big company marches onto your land, sinks a well without your permission and then proceeds to threaten your livelihood.
I suppose the only teensy thing wrong with your quote Redwing, wherever it was taken from is ;
1. It doesn't matter whether it's a big company or a little company. I don't know why the journalist mentions size ??
2. I don't know what the farmer's definition of "your land" is, but I bet it differs greatly from both the Aboriginal's who inhabited before him, and also the State Govt who have exploratory rights over the lot.
3. The State Govt doesn't need the landholders permission. This is where the farmer's all get their knickers in a twist. They assume - wrongly of course - that if they put up a fence up, no-one can come onto 'their' land without their permission.....backed up by the threat of a shotgun. Of course, the notion is ludicrous, but that's half the reason why farmers are farmers. Men like their patch, they like to be king of their patch and don't take too kindly to being told they are but a lowly prince with bugger all rights.
4. Even worse than that, they aren't entitled to bugger all of the mineral wealth underneath the land. It belongs exclusively to the Crown. This really gets their goat. They hear stories about Texas ranchers getting huge royalties, but of course our land title system entitles them to nothing. They normally do bugger all research, and on discovering this fact, they normally have a bleat as it goes directly against their wrongly held assumption.
The best they might get out of the deal is a few new roads graded, or a new gate or two, if the equipment necessary won't fit through their ramshackle old lean to's. Word quickly spreads that without getting jack squat out of the deal, all their neighbours are strongly opposed.
So they have a camp fire amongst themselves, invite a sympathetic camera crew or two along, possibly Barnaby Joyce or a National federal MP, and then go to work on the wrong assumptions. Add in a cute wife, a couple of forlorn little kids trying to support their Dad's cause against the big bad nasty miner / driller.....this works especially well if they are huge and from overseas. Add a generous layer of environmental fear and concern over the whole lot and you have the makings of a great story.
What's the end result ?? They all eventually are forced to drop their wrong assumptions about who's king of the castle.....and finally pick up the legislation governing land access for mineral exploration and discover that the laws have always been there, and always will be.....they just didn't know anything about them.
Sounds of crumbling castles ensue, and the deposed king, ably supported by crying kids and grief stricken wife all sit around the kitchen table and have a good moan about the good old days how grandpa opened the country up and it's his duty to pass the farm legacy onto his son.
Meanwhile, the city folk a thousand km away couldn't give a rats about any of that nonsense, and demand that when they flick the light on, it damn well comes on, and when they want to jump on the computer - it works and they sure as hell will get mad if the goodies in the fridge and freezer go off with no power. And don't even think about putting the cost of electricity up or the State Govt will get turfed out on their ear.
....and so, the situation remains as is.