More than 17,500 Australians have made submissions to the WA Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) public comment period on Woodside’s controversial Browse gas project, calling for the rejection of the proposal to drill for gas around Scott Reef off WA’s Kimberley coast and pipe the gas to the North West Shelf export plant.

The remarkable national response from everyday Australians shows the proposal to drill over 50 oil and gas wells around the nation’s most important oceanic coral reef is completely out of touch with community expectations and should be scrapped. The WA EPA and Cook government must now reject Woodside's proposal and protect Scott Reef from industrialisation. The reef is already under severe stress from marine heatwaves caused by fossil fuel induced climate change, to industrialise and create more carbon pollution would see the end of this reef. 

Scott Reef. Photo: Nush Freedman.

The North West Shelf extension is still awaiting final federal approval.

The Conservation Council of WA, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Environs Kimberley and Greenpeace Australia together facilitated at least 17,500 community submissions to the WA EPA. 

 Environs Kimberley Martin Pritchard, Executive Director said: 

“The proposal to put 50 oil and gas wells, effectively industrialising one of Australia’s most sensitive oceanic coral reefs, is outrageous and completely out of step with community sentiment as demonstrated by the tens of thousands of public submissions that have been put in over the past 4 weeks on the minor amendments. 

“The community has stood up to Woodside’s industrialisation attempts before to protect the Kimberley coast at James Price Point and won. They don’t seem to have learned that lesson. We are not going to stand idly by and watch the oil and gas industry industrialise precious places like Scott Reef.

“The age of fossil fuels is over and we’re not going to allow Woodside and its joint venture partners BP, Mimi Browse and Petrochina to trash Scott Reef on the way out of the door.”

Sea snakes dancing at Scott Reef. Photo: Wendy Mitchell. 

 Conservation Council of WA Executive Director Matt Roberts said:

“Woodside’s revised Browse to North West Shelf Development proposal is an insult to the intelligence of West Australians.

"It fails to address the very real risks of oil spills, subsidence, and it increases  carbon emissions while exporting gas for private profits. The threats to the pristine ecology and the endangered pygmy blue whale, green sea turtle and dusky sea snake remain.

“The EPA made the preliminary decision to reject the Browse project because of threats to nature which have not and cannot be adequately addressed by Woodside. Alongside marine experts, we are of the firm view that the EPA should reject the revised proposal.”

Australian Conservation Foundation Climate Campaigner Piper Rollins said:

“You can’t put lipstick on a pig. The extraordinary community outrage over Browse demonstrates the total lack of social licence for Woodside’s Burrup Hub, including the controversial and still to be formally approved North West Shelf extension.

“Not only would this proposal harm Scott Reef and the many marine animals that live there, but it’s the same gas that would damage the 50,000-year-old Murujuga rock art if Woodside is allowed to build a 900-kilometre underwater pipeline to export the gas from its North West Shelf plant. 

“Woodside’s Browse proposal is incompatible with a healthy environment, a safe climate and the protection of the Murujuga rock art. Woodside knows it and the WA EPA knows it. This proposal should be unequivocally rejected.”

Scott Reef. Photo: Alex Westover.

Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) Fossil Fuel Campaign Manager, Louise Morris said: 

“More than 5,000 of our supporters added their name to our submission to the WA EPA to reject this proposal as of 5pm on the submission closing date. Adding their name to our concerns about the impacts of seismic blasting on marine life such as krill and the endangered pygmy blue whale that rely on the Scott Reef ecosystem and upwellings. 

“The WA EPA had already found the Browse proposal poses unacceptable risks to endangered pygmy blue whales, the green sea turtle and other threatened marine species; these minor  amendments do nothing to fix that.”

Geoff Bice, WA Campaign Lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:

“Woodside’s revised plans are merely tinkering at the edges of what is a fundamentally problematic proposal, which fails to address the risk of subsidence at Sandy Islet, and hinges on a yet to be proven technology to mitigate the risk of a major oil spill — it is incompatible with the protection of the fragile Scott Reef.

“It’s unthinkable today that we would allow a multinational fossil fuel company to drill for gas on the Great Barrier Reef — we must not accept this at Scott Reef, home to vibrant coral, threatened species like pygmy blue whales and a critical green sea turtle rookery.

“Time and time again, Woodside has demonstrated it can’t be trusted with our oceans."

 Background on the process: 

The public comment period was in response to Woodside’s s.43A application to revise the Browse to North West Shelf Development, in response to the WA EPA forming a preliminary view in February 2024 that it would reject the project due to “unacceptable” risks to the environment, including threats many listed threatened species such as the Pygmy Blue Whale, Green Turtle and Dusky Sea Snake. 

The EPA will first make a decision on whether to accept the proposed amendments or not. They will then undergo a separate process to develop a report and recommendation to the WA Cook Government on whether Browse should proceed or not. It is expected that the EPA will accept the proposed revisions, but this will not be a decision about approval of the project or not.  

The Browse to North West Shelf Development  proposal traverses both State and Federal waters and will also require approval from the Australian Government under the EPBC Act.

The collaboration of environment groups and high profile Australians, resulting in 20,000 submissions, highlights the unabated risks to the environment and climate and widespread call for the rejection of the Browse to NWS proposal. 

• Scott Reef photos and other media assets are available via this link. 
• Photos and video from the National Day of Snap Action can be found here.
• Photos from the 2025 Woodside AGM protest can be found here.