A Kimberley gas fracking proposal by Texas-based Black Mountain Energy (BME), via subsidiary Bennett Resources, has been declared a Controlled Action by the Commonwealth Department of Environment, based on the project’s potential impacts on four Matters of National Environmental Significance, including the so-called ‘water trigger’. 

Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard said the decision was the first time a shale or tight gas fracking project in Australia has been designated a Controlled Action under the EPBC Act and subject to a final approval decision by the Federal Environment Minister.

Protest at Marrickville Town Hall – the Prime Minister’s electorate calling for a frack free Kimberley. Photo: Environs Kimberley.

“We are delighted that, thanks to massive community pressure, the ‘Valhalla’ project’s impacts on the world-renowned Kimberley are now subject to a final approval decision by Environment Minister Plibersek, taking into account its impacts on water, threatened species, migratory species and the National Heritage-listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River.

“The proposal should have been rejected outright by the Commonwealth as ‘clearly unacceptable’ and we are very disappointed that the level of assessment set – ‘by preliminary documentation’ – is very low and could be completed very rapidly with little or no new information.

“We will now be working overtime to ensure that the assessment is as rigorous as possible and that the Minister ultimately makes the right decision.

Mt Hardman Creek flows into the Martuwarra Fitzroy River – Black Mountain is proposing to frack 2 wells within 1km of the waterway. Photo: Environs Kimberley.

“There are many aspects of this decision that are unclear in terms of what the proponent is now required to do and how the community can continue to be engaged, and also how this relates to the ongoing WA EPA assessment of the project, but we will work through that with the Department in coming days.

“Given the clear information provided by scientists and the evidence we have of the global climate crisis, including coral bleaching in the Kimberley and Ningaloo right now, to allow the opening of a new oil and gas province would be unconscionable,” Mr Pritchard said.

“The carbon emissions from these twenty test fracking wells are equivalent to putting 1.5 million cars on the road for a year, we’re talking tonnes of toxic chemicals pumped under extreme pressure underground with billions of litres of water and radioactive wastewater.

“This is an industry that should be consigned to the dustbin of history.

“Minister Plibersek and the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese need to stand for the globally significant natural and cultural values of the Kimberley before it is too late. In 2021 they committed to World Heritage listing for areas of the Kimberley where Traditional Owners wanted it. 

“History, and voters, will judge the Australian Labor Party incredibly harshly if they allow fracking in the world-renowned Kimberley.”