Vanessa Mills

Peter Hansford

When environmentalists and political commentators talk about the Kimberley it is usually to discuss the sensitivity of the precious eco system, the need to protect biodiversity, or the divisive issue of on shore gas processing at James Price Point.

Rarely does talk lead to solving the energy needs of regional and remote communities dotted across this wilderness.

The high energy cost of generation is masked by levelised state pricing and treated as just another cost of being remote. However, the future energy needs of Broome and the Kimberley region generally are anticipated to increase as population growth, and industrialisation put the current energy supply arrangements under pressure.

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Media Release

Environs Kimberley

The Broome Shire Council refused to endorse recommendations to the State’s Development Assessment Panel for a decision on Thursday. The recommendations from Shire staff were to approve an application by Woodside for retrospective and new approvals for work at James Price Point, site of a proposed gas refinery.

The retrospective planning approval was for work undertaken illegally by Woodside in 2011.

A State appointed panel assessed the proposal on Friday and approved the application despite the Shire’s refusal to endorse it.

“The Shire of Broome refused to endorse a report on a Woodside development application to the State Government’s Development Assessment Panel and this decision was completely ignored. The Shire President Graeme Campbell as a member of the panel voted against assessing the application but lost due to the majority vote of three government appointed members.” said Environs Kimberley Director Martin Pritchard.

“This shows how the Development Assessment Panel’s set up by the Liberal National government have been set up to override community and Shire Council decisions, they are undemocratic and the decision makers, flown in from Perth, did not even visit the site of the proposed development site.” Mr Pritchard said.

“The community feels completely disempowered and understandably angry that the wishes of our democratic representatives in local government have been overridden.” said Mr Pritchard.

Media Release: Local Government rolled in Woodside application

Fury as Woodside works approved

Paige Taylor

ENVIRONMENTAL activists central to the fight against Woodside’s proposed gas hub at James Price Point in the Kimberley have vowed to also oppose a plan for a $600 million port near the town of Derby.

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Andrew Burrell

FORMER ALP national president Warren Mundine and wealthy Perth dealmaker John Poynton are behind a plan to promote indigenous investment by building a $600 million port near the Kimberley town of Derby to service the massive offshore oil and gas industry.

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The steady drone of commercial shipping lanes not only alters whale behaviour but can affect the giant sea mammals physically by causing chronic stress, a study has found.

The findings were made possible, researchers say, by an event that at first glance seems far removed from the plight of cetaceans: the attacks on New York’s Twin Towers on 11 September 2001.

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CPC Corp., Taiwan’s state-owned oil refiner, said it is in talks withWoodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL) to buy a stake of less than 10 percent of the proposed Browse liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia.

The company is negotiating details of a multi-year LNG supply agreement with Perth-based Woodside and wants to sign a contract this year, Chen Ming-huei, a CPC spokesman, said by telephone today. CPC said in 2010 it extended a preliminary accord to buy the fuel from the Browse venture to continue discussions aimed at completing a transaction.

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Gomati Jagadeesan

WITH Woodside already tagging a “for sale” sign on a stake in the Browse LNG project, there is increasing industry speculation about whether it can hold on to its permit after its retention lease expires in 2014.

At the heart of industry chatter is the “use it or lose it” policy under which if a permit holder does not fulfil certain conditions imposed upon it as part of the exploration licence – such as carry out a specified work program so that the field can be commercialised – then the government has the right to refuse licence renewal.

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Graham Lloyd

SWIRLING around the remote islands of King Sound on the Buccaneer Archipelago, powerful 12m tides create the Kimberley coastline’s horizontal waterfalls, dotting the waters with perilous whirlpools that can sink the foolhardy and the unprepared.

The region is a favourite place for federal Environment Minister Tony Burke, who last year declared the west Kimberley a National Heritage area. He has shed blood on the Mayala people’s sacred ground trekking barefoot over the rocky islands that help create the raging tidal flows.

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ABC Kimberley

How can an ant help science? Indigenous rangers and conservationists are using ants to monitor the health of rainforest pockets, scattered along the Dampier Peninsula.

These monsoon vine thickets occur behind ancient dunes, they’re like an oasis in the savannah, rich in bush foods, fresh water, bird life and shady trees.

There are 72 of these remnant rainforest pockets along the Dampier Peninsula north of Broome, covering 2700 hectares and containing 25 per cent of the region’s plant species. These thickets are different to others which occur in Northern Australia, and they’re listed as a Threatened Ecological Community.

But bushfires, four-wheel-driving, weeds and feral animals have degraded some thickets almost to the point of no return.

Bardi Jawi ranger Mark Shadforth and Louise Beames from Environs Kimberley’s West Kimberley Nature Conservation Project, are part of a team monitoring the health of the peninsula’s vine thickets.

Full story and audio>>