The National Heritage listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River is one of Australia’s great remaining intact rivers, a raging torrent after heavy monsoonal rains, which recedes to pools and wetland refuges by the end of the dry season.

Known as Martuwarra and Bandaralngarri by the Aboriginal people who live in the Fitzroy Valley, the River is fundamental to the lives of the people of six language groups.

Aboriginal people have occupied the river valley for thousands of years. It has been under threat of destructive proposals for decades. 

Watch inspiring and powerful Traditional Owners in the Voices of the River documentary web series as they share their fight to protect the River from large-scale water extraction. 

National Heritage listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River

Photo: Damian Kelly

Stopping dams and land-clearing 

EK was formed in 1996 in response to a proposal to build 3 dams on the Martuwarra Fitzroy River and its tributaries to irrigate 250,000 hectares of GM cotton. Alongside the Bunuba, Nyikina and Karajarri Traditional Owners, the Kimberley Land Council, state and national environment groups and wider community, we succesfully fought for eight years for the River and Country to be protected. 

In the 2000s, we successfully campaigned against a proposal by then opposition leader Colin Barnett to send water by canal from the Martuwarra Fitzroy to drought-stricken Perth.  

In 2011 the Martuwarra Fitzroy River system was placed on the Australia’s National Heritage List for its outstanding cultural and natural values.

In late 2016, at a meeting of traditional owner groups to talk about the protection and management of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, there was a call for the River to be given the highest level of protection from harmful activities including land clearing, the overuse of water, pollution, salinity and erosion. TheFitzroy River Declaration came out of this meeting. In 2018 the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council was formed to protect the river.

In 2017 billionaire Gina Rinehart said she wanted water from the Martuwarra.

The cotton farmer, John Logan, who proposed the dams in 1996, came up with a revamped proposal in 2017 that would've led to 300,000 hectares of landclearing in the Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment and beyond. Our opposition killed off this scheme quickly.

In 2019 she said she wanted 325 billion litres a year - more than the 2 million people of Perth and the southwest use. The same year, more than 40 critically endangered sawfish died on her station.

Gogo pastoral lease in the Fitzroy Valley, leased by the Harris family from New South Wales, said they wanted to take 50 billion litres of water a year from the Margaret River a tributary of the Martuwarra.   

A Fitzroy River Science Statement was signed by more than 100 scientists in 2018.

This historic commitment is a direct result of widespread support for protection of the Martuwarra and the 43,000 submissions sent by the Australian public in 2021, calling on the government to abandon plans to extract 300 billion litres of water from the river. 

In 2023 another 17 critically endangered sawfish died on Gina Rinehart's Liveringa station.

In 2023 the WA Government made a commitment that no further surface water can be taken from the Martuwarra Fitzroy River. 

Critically endangered sawfish in the Martuwarra Fitzroy River - the world's last global stronghold. 

Photo: Alex Westover

TAKE ACTION

The Cook Labor government has released a draft management plan for public comment. See our response here - New Water Plan must prevent the Martuwarra Fitzroy River becoming WA’s Murray Darling disaster

"This is our opportunity to protect the river forever. We want to see an end to all the crazy, destructive schemes that would destroy the Martuwarra Fitzroy River." Martin Pritchard, Executive Director, Environs Kimberley.

Sign the petition to protect the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, now.

A record number of appeals have been lodged against the WA Environmental Protection Authority’s (EPA) decision to recommend approval of Black Mountain Energy’s fracking project in the Kimberley, signaling widespread community opposition.

More than 8000 community members and groups made submissions ahead of the appeals period closing on Tuesday 10 February, making it the most highly contested EPA decision in Western Australia’s history.

Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard said the community’s outrage reflected serious risks posed by the proposal. Many Traditional Owners and Custodians whose countries are in the Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment would be impacted by the project and have called for it to be rejected.

“The Kimberley is home to the most pristine tropical savannah woodlands anywhere in the world, spectacular waterfalls and gorges, and wildlife seen nowhere else on earth,” Mr Pritchard said.

The Kimberley's Martuwarra Fitzroy River under threat. Photo: Alex Westover.

"Black Mountain Energy’s application to the EPA admits that the chemicals they would pump into the ground can cause severe burns, genetic mutations and organ toxicity to name a few." 

“Thousands of community members are standing up to say the Kimberley is worth protecting, and we won’t allow Texan-owned Black Mountain Energy to destroy its unique splendor.”

Lock the Gate WA State Campaign Coordinator Simone van Hattem said: “We’re campaigning in six WA electorates and the results from door-knocking are very clear — more than 90% of voters want Premier Cook and Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn to act urgently to ban fracking in the Kimberley. Fracking is a vote-shifting issue. We don't want to take it to the next election, but if we have to we will.

Community members at the EPA Appeals Convenor's office call for a Minister Swinbourn to reject the proposal.

“The EPA has failed to do its due diligence in approving Valhalla, so the people of Western Australia have made their voices heard. We trust Minister Swinbourn will hear the evidence – that this project cannot go ahead without polluting waterways and damaging the local environment.”

The previous WA EPA appeals record was 727 for Woodside’s Northwest Shelf project. More than 800 of the Valhalla project appeals are from the Kimberley.

Kimberley Traditional Owners Rally with Hundreds at WA Parliament Demanding the Cook Government Expand Fracking Ban to the Kimberley as EPA Decides

More than 500 West Australians have rallied outside WA Parliament in Perth today with Kimberley Traditional Owners, demanding the Roger Cook Government permanently ban fracking in the state’s Kimberley.

Hundreds rallied to ask the Cook Government to ban fracking in the Kimberley. Photo: Wendy Mitchell.

The community is also calling on the Cook Government to urgently reject Texan company Black Mountain Energy’s twenty-well “Valhalla” fracking project in the West Kimberley near Derby, which is undergoing state and federal environmental assessment. 

“Valhalla” is the most progressed of any fracking proposal in the state and would involve the drilling of 20 test wells in the heart of the Kimberley’s Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment. Black Mountain Energy has stated they want to send fracked gas from the Kimberley to the Pilbara. This would lead to thousands of oil and gas wells across the globally famed natural landscapes of the region.

A photo at the rally showing Mt Hardman Creek, a Kimberley waterway in the vicinity of proposed fracking. Photo: Nick Doyle.

The WA EPA has decided on its recommendation to the Minister for the Environment, Matthew Swinbourn, and is currently preparing its advice to send to him.

Today’s rally is the most significant show of opposition to fracking since 2018, when the McGowan Government permanently banned fracking in the Perth, Peel, Southwest, and Dampier Peninsula areas of the state, but inexplicably not the rest of the Kimberley. 

Hundreds rallied at WA Parliament. Photo: Martin Pritchard.

Mangala Martu Traditional Owner Nuriah Jadai said:

“We have a responsibility to look after our Country in the Kimberley. When the Country is alive, our culture is alive. The land means so much more to us than money.”

“Fracking for oil and gas threatens everything that’s important to us. We do not want to risk our springs and waterways with toxic chemicals and radioactive wastewater, and we don’t want to see our Country cut up and industrialised.

“The Labor Government keeps saying there’s a veto for Traditional Owners, this is not true. There is no veto for test fracking, and the government hasn’t put any legislation in place for a veto.

“We’re calling on the Premier Roger Cook to ban fracking on our Country in the Kimberley, like his government has done in the southwest of WA. Are we not as important as the people of the southwest?”

Mangala Martu Traditional Owner Nuriah Jadai holds a frack free Kimberley sign at the rally. Photo: Nick Doyle.

Janet Holmes á Court, prominent West Australian and supporter of the arts said:

“The Kimberley is a place like no other, cherished by West Australians and the nation. To allow it to be turned into a fracking gasfield would be sacrilege. The Premier Roger Cook needs to ban fracking in the Kimberley, it’s the most destructive industry I’ve seen proposed for the place.”

Janet Holmes á Court addresses the rally. Photo: Reifanzo Photography.

Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard said:

“There’s never been an opportunity like this for Premier Roger Cook and his Labor Government to ban fracking in the Kimberley. The community doesn’t want it, the vast majority of Traditional Owners don’t want it, and with fracking banned in the southwest of the state, it would be easy to extend the ban to the Kimberley.

“Surely the Labor Government is not going to open the Kimberley to this polluting and highly destructive industry and threaten the $500 million tourism industry, which supports hundreds of jobs in the remote region?

“If the Cook Government doesn’t ban this industry, then we’ll have no choice but to campaign hard in the seat of Fremantle again and extend that to other seats across the metro area at the next election.

“We’re not going to sit idly by and let the Kimberley be industrialised.” 

Voters urge the Cook Labor Government to ban fracking in the Kimberley. Photo: Nick Doyle.

Lock the Gate Alliance WA spokesperson Simone van Hattem said:

“West Australians love the Kimberley: its stunning waterfalls, gorges, beaches, and unique wildlife. People come from all around the world to visit the majestic Kimberley, generating hundreds of millions for a thriving tourism industry. 

“Destructive gas fracking poses a serious threat to the Kimberley. Full-scale gas fracking would mean thousands of gas wells, sucking billions of litres of water and risking catastrophic pollution and contamination.

“We’re calling on the Cook Government to ban fracking in the Kimberley. This is the moment for Premier Roger Cook to protect one of WA’s greatest natural and cultural treasures from being transformed into a frack-well pockmarked wasteland, like the gas and oil fields of the ruined Texan landscapes where Black Mountain is from.”

Photo: Reifanzo Photography.

Background:

Black Mountain Energy's 20-well Valhalla project proposal would be the first fracking operation anywhere in WA since the WA Government lifted the moratorium on fracking in 2018. If approved, it could open the door to thousands of gas wells across the region. Black Mountain Energy is comparing the Kimberley’s Canning Basin to the Permian Gas Basin in the US. The Permian has more than 190,000 oil and gas wells (see BME website here).

Photo: Nick Doyle.

Rally partners: 

The rally was organised by Environs Kimberley and Lock the Gate Alliance, in partnership with Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network, Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Conservation Council of WA, and the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The National Heritage-listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River in the Kimberley is a step closer to being protected from Murray–Darling style irrigation. A policy position released by the Cook Government this week states clearly that no new extraction of surface water will be allowed.

“We welcome this historic announcement by the Cook Government, which supports what the community has been calling for over several decades: protection of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River from massive water extraction, and dams for agribusiness to irrigate cotton and other broadacre crops,” said Environs Kimberley Director of Strategy Martin Pritchard.

The Fitzroy River catchment has the most intact tropical savannah in the world and the Martuwarra Fitzroy River has been recognized as the last stronghold for the critically endangered Freshwater Sawfish. It also supports a major Barramundi population as well as Freshwater Prawns and other important fish species. The cultural heritage values of the river have been recognized by the Commonwealth Government, which put the river on the National Heritage list in 2011.

Martuwarra Fitzroy River - Damian Kelly

Environs Kimberley was formed to protect the river and adjacent tropical savannah from large-scale cotton crops, and has worked in partnership with Aboriginal groups since 1996 to keep it running free.

“More than 43,000 people called for the Martuwarra Fitzroy River to be protected from industrial agriculture and big pumps. The health of the river system depends on uninterrupted flows. It’s great to see that the Cook Government recognizes this. We know that any water pumped out reduces Barramundi and critically endangered sawfish populations.”

“We are still concerned about groundwater extraction. 100 billion litres are mooted as being available, which would allow the irrigation of 10,000 hectares. That is an unacceptable scale of land-clearing in such an intact and biodiverse landscape.”

We are keen to see more detail on the policies, including those concerning heritage and cultural rights, and we’ll support Aboriginal groups to ensure they obtain all the rights due to them as First Nations.

Work already completed shows that other, more profitable and less damaging industries are possible in the Fitzroy Valley. Such industries should be encouraged and supported.

We know that there are limited opportunities for jobs in large-scale irrigation, which causes massive damage, including complete destruction of tropical savannah by bulldozing and burning to grow cotton.

“The new economy provides the potential for sustainable jobs, including conservation of the world-class landscapes, which Aboriginal rangers are successfully working on. Carbon abatement, cultural tourism, bush foods and renewable energy are all industries that can work in the Fitzroy Valley, and there’s a strong interest in developing them.”

“We need to get behind these new industries, which are more appropriate for the landscapes and culture of the Kimberley,” Mr Pritchard said.