First shale gas fracking plan in Australia under Federal Environment Laws released - Faces Staunch Community Opposition in the Kimberley

A new plan to drill and frack six oil and gas wells in the heart of the Kimberley’s National Heritage-listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment will face fierce widespread community opposition in the Kimberley to the environmentally destructive plan. 

The fracking project plans were released on 24th July by Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water for public comment.  

“This is the first shale gas fracking proposal referred under Federal environment laws. It will be the first test of the water trigger since amendments were made to include shale gas in December last year,” said Environs Kimberley Director of Strategy Martin Pritchard. 

Kimberley residents protest the fracking plan in Broome. Pic: Danny Estcourt.

Black Mountain subsidiary Bennett Resources, owned by Texan billionaire Rhett Bennett, plans to turn the Kimberley’s Canning Basin into a US style oil and gas field.

While this proposal is for six wells, the ultimate goal is to develop a global scale oil and gas field using the highly polluting fracking technique pioneered in the 1990s in the US.

“Black Mountain have said they need a pipeline to the Pilbara. If they got such a pipeline they’d need thousands of oil and gas wells to feed it and pay for it. We’d be looking at a landscape industrialised by the oil and gas industry like they have in Texas and across North America,” said Martin Pritchard, Director of Strategy at Broome-based conservation group Environs Kimberley.

“Fracking uses vast quantities of water laced with poisonous chemicals pumped at extreme pressures through wells that pierce groundwater aquifers. Wastewater returned to the surface has been found to contain radioactive materials as well as a legion of carcinogenic compounds. This industry is incompatible with the globally significant natural values of the Kimberley,” Claire McKinnon from Lock the Gate said.

Three wells have been test-fracked in the Kimberley over the past 14 years and all have had problems, including documented well-integrity failures.

Wastewater ponds have overflowed in the monsoon season, spilling onto floodplains and endangering the plants and animals of the Kimberley.

The wells are close to tributaries of the National Heritage-listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River, the last stronghold of the critically endangered Freshwater Sawfish, and is a highly popular Barramundi fishing mecca.

“The community is outraged that this is being inflicted on the Kimberley particularly given the climate crisis we are living in. If we want a safe climate future we know it is vital not to open new oil and gas fields especially at the scale we could see in the Kimberley,” said Yisah Bin Omar from Seed, Australia’s first Indigenous youth-led climate network.

Oil and gas company Woodside abandoned plans to build gas refineries costing $80-billion at James Price Point in 2013 after national protests and community backlash in the Kimberley.

“We don’t want to see a James Price Point situation unfolding again here, The Albanese and Cook Governments must take action now and rule out fracking gasfields in the Kimberley,” said Mr Pritchard.

Photo: Danny Estcourt