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.

Broome based conservation group Environs Kimberley says the Federal government’s approval of the Woodside North West Shelf extension to 2070 signals the death knell for Scott Reef, Australia’s most important oceanic reef 270km off the Kimberley coast.

“We need net zero by 2050 not new gas refineries to 2070 if we want to keep coral reefs like Scott Reef alive,” said Environs Kimberley Director Martin Pritchard.

“The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Environment Minister Murray Watt have taken the gas industry line which is contrary to expert organisations like the International Energy Agency, United Nations and climate scientists who say we can’t open up new gas basins if we want a safe climate,” Mr Pritchard said.

North West Shelf project. Photo: CCWA.

“People, especially young people, voted for a safe climate not the financial interests of oil and gas companies who now effectively have a licence to pollute until 2070,” said Mr Pritchard.

“The Albanese government will regret this decision as more climate catastrophes come our way and must take responsibility for that due to decisions like this.

“We now have no choice but to run the biggest campaign since James Price Point to protect Scott Reef and to make sure fracking doesn’t happen in the Kimberley,” said Mr Pritchard. 

Send your submission to save Scott Reef here. 

Scott Reef. Photo: Alex Westover.

Community members have staged a colourful protest at oil and gas developer Buru Energy’s annual general meeting in Perth today, accusing the company of a lack of transparency over its failure to refer its west Kimberley projects to WA’s environment watchdog. 

Groups working to protect the Kimberley are aware Buru Energy’s projects are at advanced planning stages, yet have not been referred to the state’s EPA.

Photos and a video of the protest are available here.

Buru Energy’s planned Kimberley projects include:

• Re-opening its polluting Ungani oil production facility and trucking oil through Broome or Derby for export;
• Opening a new conventional gas project, Rafael and producing LNG and condensate (light oil) for local use and/or export;
• Constructing new roads and pipelines;
• Potentially recommencing fracking at its Yulleroo gas lease near Broome.

Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard said, “Buru Energy’s planned projects would result in the fossil fuel industrialisation of the Kimberley - a region that is famous around the world for its pristine nature. These projects would also use massive amounts of groundwater and emit huge volumes of climate pollution.

“Buru Energy also holds the Yulleroo unconventional gas field, where it has previously fracked and has not ruled out fracking there again in the future.

“The Kimberley has the largest most intact tropical savannah in the world and our aquifers, wetlands and waterways are pollution free, we need to make sure we keep it that way and fossil fuel projects are not compatible with our region.

“A full EPA assessment should be conducted to properly consider the individual, combined and cumulative environmental and social impacts of Buru Energy’s stated fossil fuel industrialisation plans.”

The community protests outside Buru Energy's AGM.

Lock the Gate Alliance WA spokesperson Claire McKinnon said, “Buru Energy wants to industrialise the west Kimberley with fossil fuel projects yet none of the company’s drilling plans have been referred to the WA environment watchdog in over a decade.

“We’re really concerned Buru Energy’s oil and gas projects will go under the radar unless they are referred for assessment and full public scrutiny.

“Buru Energy’s planned oil and gas projects would have a devastating impact on the Kimberley’s unique environment. Buru Energy has already faced criticism for bulldozing so much habitat in the Kimberley for grid seismic testing that if the clearing was arranged in a straight line, it would stretch more than halfway around the world.”

Environs Kimberley (EK) has rejected Woodside’s just-announced changes to its Browse gas project on Scott Reef as ‘tinkering around the edges’.

The WA EPA is now seeking public comment on Woodside’s five proposed ‘Section 43A’ changes which the company claims will reduce the project’s environmental risks and impacts.

Executive Director of EK, Martin Pritchard, said the proposed changes would in no way change the fact that the Scott Reef project should never be approved.

“Scott Reef is a natural jewel off the Kimberley coast. There is no way that drilling, processing and piping gas in this living marine environment could ever be made environmentally acceptable.

“In 2024 it was revealed via an FOI application that the EPA had formed the ‘preliminary view’ that Woodside’s Browse proposal was environmentally unacceptable.  According to the documents, the EPA cited threats to endangered whales and turtles and the risk of an oil spill and concluded that the project posed threats of serious or irreversible damage.

“Woodside’s tinkering has done nothing to change the reality that its project is unacceptable.

Scott Reef. Photo: Wendy Mitchell.

“We are dealing with a global climate and extinction crisis caused in large part by fossil fuels. It makes absolutely no sense to locate a new fossil fuel project, which would result in millions of tonnes of additional GHG emissions, in an environment rich in rare and threatened marine life like Pygmy blue whales, dolphins, marine turtles and sea snakes, as well as countless fish and coral species.

“Instead of tinkering with the project and toying with the assessment process, Woodside should get serious and drop the whole proposal.”

Banner image: Scott Reef. Photo: Alex Westover.

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.”

A petroleum company’s attempts to offload stricken oil and gas infrastructure on an environmentally sensitive peninsula within the National Heritage-listed King Sound for a fraction of the value it was estimated to be worth should ring alarm bells for the WA Cook Government.

Environs Kimberley and Lock the Gate Alliance say the situation highlights the risks the fracking industry poses to the unique Kimberley region.

Deteriorated and inaccessible by vehicle: the causeway to the Point Torment well site. Photo: supplied.

Rey Resources is attempting to offload its Kimberley-based assets and 100%-owned subsidiary Gulliver Productions to an overseas company called China Guoxin Investment Holdings, after writing down the value of its assets from nearly $5 million to about $400,000. In response to this announcement, the ASX sent a series of questions to Rey probing the company's financial situation was sufficient to warrant its continued listing and expressing uncertainty over “the group’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

Documents obtained by Environs Kimberley under Freedom of Information reveal that in 2021, the three King Sound gas wells were a mess, with oil staining on the ground and wellhead corrosion, among 44 possible breaches departmental officials identified. It is unclear what, if any, remediation work Rey has undertaken since inspection. 

Environs Kimberley and Lock the Gate Alliance fears there is a significant risk that if Rey Resources successfully offloads its assets, they will be abandoned and the hefty rehabilitation bill will fall to the WA taxpayer, as has recently occurred with New Standard Energy and Advent Energy projects in the Kimberley. The stranding of these wells resulted in multi-million cleanup bills and potentially “profound” ecological damage.

Rey Resources' cleared drill pad at Point Torment. Photo: supplied.

Shortly before announcing this planned “disposal” deal to the ASX, Rey Resources also lodged a state petroleum exploration application to clear grid lines more than 3000 km long for seismic testing across a 5058 km2 tenement near Derby and south east of its existing wells in the Kimberley. Under current WA rules, these tenements are able to be fracked, should Rey apply to do so. This tenement is included in the proposed offload deal. 

Environs Kimberley recently wrote to the Foreign Investment Review Board, urging it to reject Rey’s attempts to offload its subsidiary and Kimberley assets. This followed letters to WA Mines and Petroleum Minister David Michael expressing concerns over the company's plans. 

Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard said, “It was a reckless decision to allow drilling for oil and gas in the mangrove lined flats of King Sound in the first place. The cost of cleaning up the mess left behind in this remote and sensitive location will run to millions of dollars.

“The Department of Mines and Petroleum has let the drill sites deteriorate to the point where one of them is now inaccessible by vehicle and they’ve had to chopper in staff to investigate. 

“The department seems to let these oil and gas companies get away with poor management without consequences. The Petroleum Minister David Michael needs to take charge of the situation to make sure taxpayers aren't footing the clean-up bill for another oil and gas company. 

“It’s really clear that fracking in these areas would be an absolute disaster when the government departments can’t manage three wells and make companies accountable for poor practices.”  

The Stokes Bay well site. Photo: supplied.

Lock the Gate WA Coordinator Claire McKinnon said, “No oil and gas company should ever have been given permission to drill in an area as environmentally significant as the National Heritage listed King Sound.

“Rey must be forced to fund the decommissioning and closure of all the wells on its tenements. The WA taxpayer must not be left to once again pick up the clean up bill for an oil and gas company.

“This concerning situation shows why it’s so important that the Cook Government ban fracking in the Kimberley. 

“The high cost of unconventional gas extraction means it’s likely that if a fracking company was able to get a project going in the Kimberley, it would result in the drilling of many hundreds if not thousands of wells. 

“This sorry situation shows the Cook Government is not up to the task of adequately regulating a mere three conventional wells, let alone thousands of frack wells”.

Independent legal advice states there would be no obligation for the Western Australian Government to compensate any company that possesses a petroleum tenement, should the ban on fracking be expanded to the Kimberley.

This raises serious questions about the response from Premier Roger Cook, quoted in the media recently, suggesting there could be “legal consequences for the state”, should the ban be extended to include the Kimberley. 

Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard said, “The Premier’s claims are unfounded — we’re yet to see any evidence that there would be legal ramifications from a fracking ban.

“In fact we have legal advice from a barrister — whose career includes many years at the State Solicitor's Office — that shows exactly the opposite. 

Community protest in Broome. Photo: Alex Westover.

“The legal advice is clear — no compensation would be owed to companies who hold a petroleum license if the WA Labor Government banned fracking in the Kimberley.

“The WA Government banned fracking down south and around Perth and as far as we’re aware there was no compensation, so why won’t MPs do it for the Kimberley? 

“The Premier is aware of our legal advice, and we’ve told him, if he knows something that we don’t, we’re more than happy to have it legally reviewed. 

“West Australians won’t stand by while the Kimberley is sacrificed for no reason. Traditional Owners and Kimberley locals are calling for a ban. Community organisations are calling for a ban. And so are WA Labor’s voters. It’s time to act.”

Fremantle locals know fracking the Kimberley would be disastrous. Photo: John Reed.

Lock the Gate Alliance WA Coordinator Claire McKinnon said, “Voters aren’t about to be hoodwinked by Roger Cook’s claims that fracking isn’t going to expand in the Kimberley. 

“The fact is, US company Black Mountain has plans to frack in the Kimberley going through state and federal approval processes right now. 

“Lock the Gate Alliance and Environs Kimberley have galvanised an army of volunteers and supporters in Perth and Fremantle who are backing Kimberley communities in their call for a ban. 

“If the Cook Government refuses to ban fracking in the Kimberley, then it can expect the voters of Freo and Perth to send them a strong message at the ballot box at the upcoming election.”

More than 23,000 petitions and postcards from voters calling for a ban on fracking in the Kimberley have been handed over to Premier Roger Cook and Minister Simone McGurk in Fremantle.

“The Kimberley is known for its world class landscapes, intact nature and ancient culture; to allow fracking here would be a disaster,” Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard said.

More than 23,000 voices, one clear message: ban fracking in the Kimberley.

“And Fremantle locals know it. It’s why they’ve been volunteering in droves to put up yard signs committing to vote for a candidate who will ban fracking, attending local events, and reaching out to their friends and neighbours asking them to join the momentum," he said.

“The only people who support fracking are the gas companies chasing bigger profits. Those who know about the toxic pollution and damaging production methods are completely opposed.

“This 23,000 signature petition is a powerful message to the Cook government and the Minister for Water, Simone McGurk that people want fracking banned in the Kimberley like it is in the southwest of Western Australia.”

Fremantle locals know fracking Kimberley would be disastrous.

Lock the Gate Alliance spokesperson Claire McKinnon said: “We’re ramping up the pressure of our community campaign – that's driven by hundreds of Freo locals – calling on Simone McGurk to ban fracking in the Kimberley in the leadup to the WA election.

“These 23,000 petitions, plus our door to door and community event surveys have revealed without a doubt that Fremantle constituents want their local MP Simone McGurk to ban fracking in the Kimberley – and they’re willing to switch their votes over it," she said.

“Fracking, which requires a toxic cocktail of dangerous chemicals and huge volumes of water, poses a major threat to the Kimberley’s communities and its unique environment.

“WA Labor was right to ban fracking across the south west of the state, but leaving the Kimberley at risk exposed a double standard. This must be fixed.” 

You can send a message asking Premier Cook to ban fracking in the Kimberley here. 

Photos: John Reed.

Premier Cook on election trail in the Kimberley – community calls for fracking ban commitment

West Australian Premier Roger Cook is on the election trail in Broome and has been greeted with a strong community call to extend the ban on fracking in the southwest of the state and the Dampier Peninsula to cover all the Kimberley.

While the WA Government under Premier Mark McGowan’s leadership promised veto rights for Traditional Owners and farmers over fracking in 2018, the promise has not been fulfilled and the whole process is creating significant division in communities across the region.

“There’s a simple answer to the whole question of the destructive industrialisation of the Kimberley through oil and gas fracking and that’s a ban on the industry like there is in the Southwest of the state,” said Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard.

The community protest at local Kimberley MP Divina D’Anna’s office called for the ban in light of the proposal by Texan fossil fuel company Black Mountain, to drill and frack 20 oil and gas wells in the Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment.

The WA EPA is currently assessing the proposal and a decision will be required of the WA Government after the election.

The Kimberley community has vehemently opposed fracking for the past 12 years and concerns have been heightened recently with Black Mountain proposing a pipeline to an LNG refinery in the Pilbara.

“A recent report by climate scientists has shown the potential for 8,700 oil and gas wells across the region that would seriously undermine Australia's ability to meet its climate goals, surely the Premier Roger Cook doesn’t want to open the Kimberley to that,” Mr Pritchard said.

“What we have now is a completely different proposition to what the WA government based its lifting of the ban on fracking in the Kimberley in 2018. What we’re facing now is turning the Kimberley into Texas,” Mr Pritchard said.  

“The community wants a commitment from the Premier and the Labor party that the already existing ban on fracking in the Southwest of the state and the Dampier Peninsula be extended to cover the whole Kimberley,” Mr Pritchard said.

Surveying of over 1,000 people in the seat of Fremantle revealed 92% of voters want a ban on fracking and 72% are willing to change their vote for it.

“If its too risky for the Southwest then we shouldn’t be discriminated against in the Kimberley just because it’s been a safe Labor seat,” Mr Pritchard said.

You can send a message asking Premier Cook to ban fracking in the Kimberley here. 

Photo: Damian Kelly.

Today marks the close of the EPA’s eight week public comment period on Black Mountain Energy’s proposal, via subsidiary Bennett Resources Ltd, to drill and frack 20 exploratory gas wells in the Kimberley (the ‘Valhalla’ project).

If approved by the Cook government, the project would be the first fracking project in the Kimberley since the lifting of the WA fracking moratorium in 2018 and the largest fracking proposal the region has seen.

Environs Kimberley (EK) as well as Seed Mob, Lock the Gate, Conservation Council of WA and the ACF have handed over several thousand public submissions opposing the fracking project, as well as our own detailed submission with accompanying expert reports on water, hydro-geology and greenhouse gas emissions.

EK Acting CEO Martin Pritchard said, “This proposal is the precursor to a catastrophic, landscape–scale onshore oil and gas fracking takeover of the Kimberley's globally–renowned tropical savannah, the largest and most intact in the world.

“Our research into Black Mountain’s fracking proposal is backed by robust, detailed science and it demonstrates the many serious impacts, risks and uncertainties associated with the project – which the company has sought to downplay or ignore in its environmental reports.

“Given what we, and other groups, have documented and submitted we believe the EPA will have to recommend against the proposal.  Then it’s up to the Cook government to make the final decision.

“We have documented significant threats to the National Heritage–listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River; to the uncontaminated groundwater aquifers relied upon by communities and the environment, and the project’s climate impacts – these 20 fracking wells alone would pollute equivalent to 1.6 million cars a year.

“Ultimately, thousands of wells and a huge pipeline would be required if the gas was to be exported through the North West Shelf, as is the current plan.

“Once fracking occurs its impacts are irreversible. When fracking companies become established, the expansion of impacts is inevitable. This has been the experience in multiple comparable fossil gas basins in the US, where Black Mountain is based.

“We're again calling on the Cook government to avert this disaster by banning fracking in the Kimberley as it has done in the Southwest, Peel and Perth Metropolitan areas. There is no good reason to allow fracking in the Kimberley while other parts of the State are protected.”

You can call on the WA Cook government to ban fracking here

Photos:

Submission handover at the EPA office Joondalup - Martin Pritchard

US fracking fields - Ecoflight

Martuwarra Fitzroy River - Martin Pritchard