Sometimes claimed opponents of shale and tight gas developments are mistaking this form of gas with coal seam gas (CSG), the implication being that what's happened with CSG could not happen in WA. There are differences, but the risk of pollution to groundwater, and the impact of land and communities are very similar. 

East coast CSG wells are useful guides to some of the impacts of fracking, but better illustrations are US shale developments such as the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, or the Barnett Shale in Texas. These shale deposits lie at similar depths to the deposits in Western Australia and increasingly corning stories continue to emerge from these places.