Cr Ian Smith received backing from Crs Colin Ryan, Mick Wolfe and Daniel Meade for a motion that advocated for the practice to return on the condition that landowners receive royalties.

The motion only advocates for exploration, not production, and is for conventional exploration methods, not unconventional ones such as fracking.

Cr Smith said it could be an economic boon for the region and farmers, as well as potentially helping lower energy prices.

“There are currently 4000 conventional gas wells in production or that have been in production, and there were absolutely no issues with them,” he said.

“There’s quite a lot of gas in our area. It could be another stream of income for farms and the general community.”

Cr Ryan supported the motion, saying that in a time of climate change and moving away from coal-fired power station it made no sense to be sitting on “potentially the greatest gas field in Australia” and doing nothing.

But Crs Jordan Lockett, Jill Parker and Jim Doukas criticised the motion, particularly because there had been no consultation with the community on the matter.

“If we represent the views of the municipality, it would be handy to have those views expressed to us,” Cr Parker said.

“I haven’t heard any comments, one way or the other, on the subject prior to this meeting.”

Cr Lockett said they hadn’t even had presentations from gas companies on the matter.

Cr Doukas said there were “a lot of signs on farm gates saying ‘shut the gate’” in relation to particular types of gas exploration.

“Those people need to be consulted,” he said.

Cr Doukas also questioned Cr Smith’s assertion a return to gas exploration would lower energy prices.

“There’s no guarantee it will bring down the price of gas at all – that’s pie in the sky stuff,” he said.