No amount of oil and gas is worth risking the existence of the 15 million-year-old Scott Reef ecosystem

Woodside AGM, Perth Thursday 23 May. Environs Kimberley - the Kimberley’s peak environmental organisation - has used Woodside’s Annual General Meeting to raise serious concerns about the fossil fuel company’s plans to drill for oil and gas off the Kimberley coast. Speaking outside the AGM, Environs Kimberley said no amount of oil and gas is worth risking the existence of the 15 million-year-old Scott Reef ecosystem.

As the temperature rises on Australia’s largest oil and gas company Woodside, environmental groups and community members protested outside Woodside’s Annual General Meeting to sound the alarm over Woodside’s dangerous Browse proposal to drill up to 50 oil and gas wells around Australia’s most important oceanic reef.

Environs Kimberley Save Scott Reef Community Organiser Wendy Mitchell attended the AGM and said:

“After spending a month living out at Scott Reef, diving across seemingly endless coral slopes and documenting the abundant marine life that thrives there, it feels deeply unjust that Woodside plans to blast and drill for oil and gas around one of Australia’s most significant offshore ecosystems.

“The risk to the surrounding reef and marine life, including 29 marine mammals found there, like endangered pygmy blue whales, is too great. If an oil spill disaster happened, it would be catastrophic for Scott Reef, its corals, and the 900 fish species that rely on them. It could be the end of a 15 million-year-old reef.”

“We saw what happened with the Montara oil spill disaster back in 2009 off the Kimberley coast, where oil spewed out into the Timor Sea for 75 days, reaching as far as Indonesia, devastating wildlife and coastal communities in its wake.

“If an oil spill disaster were to happen, it could be the end of Scott Reef. The oil risk travelling asfar as the Kimberley coast is shown in Woodside’s own oil spill mapping. The Kimberley coastline is considered within the top 4% of the most pristine coastlines in the world, comparable only to the Arctic or Antarctica.”

“We want to see the Cook Labor Government reject oil and gas drilling at Scott Reef and establish a marine park. No amount of oil and gas is worth risking the existence of a 15 million year old ecosystem like Scott Reef.”

Image: Community members at the Woodside AGM protest at Crown Casino - Perth. Image: Marnie Richardson