The world famous Kimberley region of Western Australia is under threat from oil and gas fracking. Three thousand people gathered in Broome and called on the new Premier of Western Australia Roger Cook to ban the industry.

The Kimberley has the largest most intact tropical savanna and the oldest living culture in the world. The $620 million tourism industry is based on spectacular unspoilt landscapes, stunning beaches and coastlines and the vibrant Aboriginal cultural experiences.

Oil and gas companies have plans to frack the region and have compared it to places in the US for its resources. Those places in the US have now been transformed by tens of thousands of oil and gas fracking wells, pockmarked landscapes and polluted air and water. Kimberley people and groups are celebrating more than 10 years of successful campaigns to protect the region from fracking; however, fracking companies have proposals that could leave the Kimberley with a landscape like those in the US. Now, a pipeline is being planned, to carry the fracked oil and gas to the Pilbara. This new threat comes as Western Australia’s new Premier Roger Cook begins his tenure.

Musicians from across the country performed free of charge at Cable Beach on Saturday August 12 include rising star Bojesse Pigram, Pilbara Country singer Bradley Hall, Kankawa Nagarra Knight, Kimberley Blues Gospel singer who performs around the world with Hugh Jackman, highly celebrated, ARIA-nominated, award-winning Indigenous singer and songwriter Emma Donovan and WA’s award winning artist John Butler fresh off a European tour.

Emma Donovan on stage at the Frack Free Kimberley Concert 2023

They all sang with one voice calling on Western Australian Premier Roger Cook to protect the world famous region from fracking.  

John Butler said - 

“I’ve travelled all around the world and the Kimberley is in a league of its own. Big Country with intact nature and vibrant, ancient culture. 

I’ve also travelled through the American fracking fields and seen the industrialisation that’s wrecked the environment and communities. The last thing I want to see is the Kimberley industrialised by oil and gas fracking. 

The Premier Roger Cook can protect the Kimberley from this nightmare scenario. That’s why I’m involved and when the call for help came from Traditional Owners and the community I gladly joined in. This concert is a launch pad and from here we’ll build the momentum for a ban on fracking the Kimberley.”

Martin Pritchard from Environs Kimberley said - 

“The community is united against fracking one of the most remarkable unspoilt regions of the world, the new Premier needs to listen and take action to protect the Kimberley.'

Traditional Owners, national group Lock the Gate also addressed the crowd and Doctors for the Environment Australia were also at the event calling for a Frack Free Kimberley.

To send a message to Premier Cook to ban fracking in the Kimberley go here

Check out more photos from the concert on Flickr

Photos: Damian Kelly

THE KIMBERLEY – ONE OF THE WORLD’S LAST NATURAL REGIONS

The Kimberley region is of global importance. The ecological and scientific values of one of the least spoiled and most extensive naturally functioning suite of ecosystems left on the planet are comparable only with areas such as the Amazon and the Antarctic. Its seas, myriad islands, coral reefs, mangroves, rainforests, savanna woodlands and rivers are home to an astonishing variety of marine and terrestrial wildlife.

Kimberley landscape - globally important                          Photo: Damian Kelly

The Indigenous cultural values of the Kimberley are outstanding; the Traditional Owners’ ancient connections to their country are unbroken to the present day. The region has a $500 million tourism industry based on its natural and cultural values.

GLOBALLY SIGNIFICANT VALUES UNDER THREAT FROM FRACKING

Despite its National Heritage-listed values, wetlands of international significance and nationally listed threatened species, the Kimberley is under threat from oil and gas companies wanting to open up the region to fracking.

If fracking got a foothold, the landscape would be changed forever, and this highly polluting industry would be a blight across the region, threatening its clean air, water, and reputation as a world-class tourism destination.

Texan-based fracking company Black Mountain Energy is aggressively pushing to establish gasfields across the region. It has applied to the Environmental Protection Authority to drill and frack 20 oil and gas wells in the heart of the Kimberley, 60km from Fitzroy Crossing.

EMISSIONS DOUBLE PARIS AGREEMENT CARBON BUDGET

Black Mountain has also been given a conditional green light by the McGowan Government to send gas overseas or interstate. Despite knowing that the climate crisis is escalating and the world needs to cut carbon emissions drastically, Premier McGowan is allowing plans to open up a new global-scale fracking gasfield to roll on.

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency has said that no new fossil fuel basins can be opened up if we are to have a safe climate.

The McGowan Government’s approval and support for Woodside’s Scarborough project will lead to massive carbon emissions, but these will pale in comparison to the emissions that would come from the Canning Basin (see comparison in ‘Gas reserves North West Western Australia’ below’).

A report by Climate Analytics estimates the emissions from fracking the Canning Basin to be more than double the whole of Australia’s allowable CO2e emissions under the Paris Agreement[1].

KIMBERLEY PIPELINE FOR FRACKED GAS

The State Development Minister (previously Minister for Health) Roger Cook, told Parliament in June that the Federal National Party wanted to drag Australia back to the “dark ages of coal, climate change denial and taking WA’s economic future backwards”, and that the state government had a “green energy vision for WA.”. A few months later he granted Black Mountain Energy a conditional exemption from the domestic gas policy, which was developed to reserve gas for Western Australia’s future use.

Black Mountain would need to build a 1,100km pipeline from the Kimberley to the Pilbara at an approximate cost of $1.2 to $1.5 billion. Other petroleum companies with interest in the Kimberley (Origin Energy, Buru Energy, Rey Resources, Goshawk Oil and Gas and Theia Energy) would all be likely to follow suit, seek an export exemption and join the pipeline network[2].

Thousands of wells would have to be drilled and fracked to pay for a pipeline of this cost and scale. The Kimberley’s world renowned landscape would be turned into an industrial gasfield, like the ones that blight North America.

“Bringing North American Expertise to the Australian Shale Revolution” – Black Mountain Energy.

Is this what Australians want the Kimberley to look like?

SAVE THE KIMBERLEY FROM A FRACKING NIGHTMARE – LET’S STOP THE PIPELINE

The vast majority of Broome and Kimberley people, including Traditional Owners, are opposed to this toxic industry getting a foothold in the region. Premier Mark McGowan and State Development Minister Roger Cook need to hear from thousands of West Australians and people across the continent that the Kimberley must be protected from industrialisation, and that opening up a new fossil fuel basin for fracking will risk a climate-change catastrophe.

Broome people call to - 'Stop the Kimberley fracking pipeline'                       Photo: Damian Kelly

Email Premier McGowan – [email protected]

Email Minister Cook – [email protected]

Send a strong message calling on your local Member of Parliament and relevant Ministers to stop fracking the Kimberley by going to this link.

If you’d like to donate to the campaign to save the Kimberley from fracking, you can make a tax-deductible donation here

[1] https://climateanalytics.org/briefings/western-australias-gas-gamble/ 

[2] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-07/kimberley-fracking-project-granted-wa-gas-export-ban-exemption/100520190

The West-East pipeline push revealed by the leaked report from the manufacturing taskforce of the National COVID Coordination Commission (NCCC) would be a disaster for efforts to combat climate change according to Lock the Gate Alliance and conservation group Environs Kimberley.

It would also be a huge risk to the regions water and tropical savannah – the largest, most intact in the world.

The pipeline could rip apart the Kimberley’s Canning Basin to fracking for shale and tight gas with thousands of wells risking pollution on an industrial scale at the renowned tourism region known for its rich Aboriginal culture and stunning natural landscapes.

Recent comments in the media supporting the pipeline have been labelled as “reckless for the climate and Kimberley water” by the groups.

“The amount of carbon dioxide that would be released if you fracked the Kimberley would be significant on a global scale and come at a huge cost to future generations,” said Lock the Gate National Coordinator Naomi Hogan.

“It would blow apart our Paris Agreement commitments twice over. That’s not just a disaster for the climate, it’s a huge risk in terms of future carbon pollution costs, and the financial burden to taxpayers,” said Ms Hogan.

Environs Kimberley Director Martin Pritchard said “We’re calling on the McGowan Government to reject this pipeline because it would not only lock in carbon pollution for decades, but also open up the Kimberley to fracking.

“Three wells have been test fracked in the Kimberley since 2010 and already we’ve had radioactive wastewater discharge, two gas leaks that highlighted a failure of regulation, and wastewater ponds overflowing in the wet season – it would be an unmitigated disaster to have thousands of wells across the landscape.

“The community here and particularly Aboriginal groups have rejected fracking in the Kimberley for years and will continue to do so. We only recently had more than 7,000 people send in submissions calling for protection from fracking in the Kimberley.”

Ms Hogan said, “We call on Prime Minister Morrison to reject the pipeline and instead invest in clean energy which is proven to provide long term jobs without pollution.”

Sign the petition to ban fracking in the Kimberley here

LTG media contact - 0447355565