Kimberley Traditional Owners travelled to WA Premier Roger Cook's office in his electorate at Kwinana to call for a legislated ban on fracking for the iconic Kimberley region.

The call comes after WA Labor members voted for a statewide ban on the dangerous and polluting gas extraction technique at the party’s State Conference on Saturday. 

The decision to heed the party’s position, and make the statewide fracking ban a legislated reality, now sits with Premier Cook.

Traditional Owners urge Premier Cook to legislate a fracking ban in the Kimberley. Photo: Wendy Mitchell.

The Labor conference vote and Traditional Owner visit come at a critical time for the Kimberley. WA’s Environment Protection Authority is expected to make a decision in coming weeks on Texan company Black Mountain’s Valhalla fracking project in the National Heritage-listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment, east of Broome. 

If approved, fracking in the Kimberley could start as early as next year. Black Mountain would have permission to drill and frack 20 ‘test’ wells, with expectations that the company would ultimately drill hundreds and possibly thousands more, industrialising the Kimberley beyond recognition.

Traditional Owner from the Kimberley, Madeleine Jadai said, “We welcome the Labor Party decision on the weekend to ban fracking in the Kimberley. Our Country means everything to us and we are totally against anything that would damage and pollute it, like fracking.

“We’ve come from the Kimberley to let the Premier Roger Cook know we now want his government to take the next step and ban fracking.

“We’ve come to his Kwinana office to let him know how much this means to us. Premier Cook: please ban fracking on our land so we can have it safe for future generations.”

Traditional Owners called for a legislated ban on fracking in the Kimberley region. Photo: Martin Pritchard.

Environs Kimberley executive director Martin Pritchard said, “The Labor Party endorsing a ban on fracking in the Kimberley on the weekend was a huge shift. Now, the work begins to make the ban government policy and legislation, and we stand with Traditional Owners to protect Country and make it happen.”

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.

Broome-based conservation group Environs Kimberley (EK) is calling on the WA and Federal governments to reject the proposal from global sea cage fish farm developer Tassal to establish 84 barramundi sea cages across the remote, environmentally sensitive, National heritage-listed Buccaneer Archipelago north of Broome.

EK’s submission to the WA EPA assessment outlines seven of the reasons the proposal should be rejected.

Tassal, owned by Canadian giant Cooke Aquaculture Inc., is one of the companies involved in the ongoing salmon sea cage controversy in Tasmania. It recently acquired the existing, relatively small, Cone Bay barramundi sea cage operation in the Kimberley and has put forward a proposal to establish 84 sea cages spread across 50 km in the Mayala Marine Park which forms part of the National Heritage-listed Buccaneer Archipelago.

EK Executive Director Martin Pritchard said the marine and island environment of the Mayala Marine Park and Buccaneer Archipelago is incredibly significant for its environmental values and is no place for a high-risk industry like large scale sea cage fish farms.

Humpback whale calf with its mother. Photo: Matt Deakin.

“Recent experience in Tasmania, and also a massive fish death event at Cone Bay in 2019, show that large scale sea cage fish farming brings many impacts and risks which under no circumstances should be imposed on a globally significant environment like the Buccaneer Archipelago.

“The Kimberley coast is in the top 4% of least impacted coastlines in the world.  (Source: Halpern et al 2008)

“The marine environment of the Kimberley, including Buccaneer Archipelago, is a recognised stronghold for species like Humpback whales who give birth here, dolphins, dugong, turtles, rays and sawfish – species which are under increasing pressure elsewhere due to habitat loss, pollution, fishing and global warming.

“The Buccaneer Archipelago is also popular amongst recreational fishers who are concerned about this proposal.

Cone Bay. Photo: Martin Pritchard.

“Here in the Kimberley these marine species have the world’s most pristine environment where they can migrate, breed, raise their young and feed in safety. The many islands too are incredibly significant as refugia for species whose populations have sharply declined on the mainland due to introduced species and changed fire regimes.

“Spreading sea cage fish farming through this remote and pristine marine and island environment brings many risks including pollution, introduction of pests and diseases, attraction of predators, interruption of breeding and feeding patterns, unauthorised access to islands and disposal of large volumes of dead barramundi.

“Because of its remoteness, high tides, fast currents, narrow channels (and cyclones), if there is a major event like mass fish escape or mass disease and death event, it will be logistically very difficult to address.

Edeline Islands. Photo: Martin Pritchard.

“There is absolutely no good reason to put at risk a unique environment like the Buccaneer Archipelago to grow barramundi in sea cages. Fish farming should be undertaken close to population centres and support services and should be developed as closed-cycle operations on land, not in the open sea. This is the case with barramundi farming in the Northern Territory.”

Read more: WA Today's report "Tarnished Tassal brand targets WA barramundi".

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.”

The Broome peninsula has a magnificent coastline.

Stretching back through geological time, the Broome sandstone harbours 130-million-year-old dinosaur footprints with profound meaning to traditional custodians. Then there are the 2,000-year-old human ones. Cultural treasures that feature in ancient stories are embedded in the rock and coastline. Registered Aboriginal heritage sites abound along the coast, middens attesting to the food riches sustained over millennia.

The reefs, with more than 40 species of coral, are gems of colour, shape and size, home to Clownfish, octopuses and anemones. Stand at Entrance Point at the right time and you can see Humpback Whales steaming past, Snubfin Dolphins hunting the Roebuck Deeps and, around the corner at Simpson's Beach, endangered sawfish skim for food and schools of salmon swim for their lives along the shore.

Recent photographs of previously undocumented animals (undoubtedly known to First Nations people), such as an unusual crab and poisonous anemone, show how little we know and how rich this tropical coastline is. During a recent visit to Reddell Beach (remember the marina planned for it?) with a marine biologist, we saw a Leopard Ray shoot off from our feet, a turtle pop its head up and birds dive-bomb fish balls – “It's so good to see this ecosystem is healthy; down south they're trashed,” was the comment.

With such a rich natural and cultural history, wouldn't we be protecting it? 'No' appears to be the answer from the state government, with its support for the plan to build an industrial floating jetty that would cut through the popular, rich reef of Entrance Point.

Just around the corner, plans for a unique Broome beach, bookended by sandstone headlands, are to cover it in 10 metres of concrete. In front, where we can now see Gourdon Bay across the turquoise waters of Roebuck Bay, would rise a 12-metre rock wall to serve as a breakwater. The estimated costs to taxpayers three years ago - $77 million. Inflation and a tradie shortage make it more than $100 million now. The purpose - to allow tinnies a few extra hours in the day to launch and for inexperienced boaties to bring in vessels when they haven't checked the weather and tides and find they're in trouble.

As locals born and bred here keep saying, if you can't launch and retrieve a boat safely now, you shouldn't be in the ocean without an experienced hand with an understanding of tides and wind around Broome. Instead of destroying one of Broome's most beautiful recreational beaches full of marine life and geological treasures, a memorial site for loved past residents of Broome, for $100 million, let's spend it on looking after Country and people.

You can help protect Entrance Point Reef by sending a message to Premier Roger Cook and Minister for Ports David Michael here.

Photos of Entrance Point Reef life: Sharmaine Donnelly. Photo of Broome locals protest: Damian Kelly.

Woodside’s Browse oil and gas drilling plan for Scott Reef rejected by EPA

Oil and gas multinational Woodside’s Browse Basin project at Scott Reef with joint venture partners BP, Japan Australia LNG and PetroChina has suffered a huge blow after being rejected by the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).

Congratulations to the EPA for a sensible first step in rejecting a terrible proposal.

Scott Reef. Pic: Alex Westover

The EPA have said the company’s plans to drill 50 oil and gas wells around the globally significant Scott Reef off the Kimberley coast has unacceptable impacts on endangered Blue Whales, be a threat to endangered Green Turtles, and risk pollution and oil spills at the highly biodiverse and fragile reef, according to reports made public today. The EPA considers these risks too high.

Scott Reef is a marine biodiversity hotspot that supports 29 marine mammal species including endangered Blue Whales. Nine hundred species of fish have been found at the reef and 1,500 species of invertebrates, including soft and hard corals, sponges and crustaceans. It is also a hotspot for sea snakes, including the elusive Dusky Sea Snake, which hasn’t been seen since 2002.

Save Scott Reef protest in Broome. Pic: Alex Westover.

“This proposal to drill 50 oil and gas wells around Scott Reef off the Kimberley coast, one of the most important marine hotspots in Australian waters, would be rejected out of hand at the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo, so it’s not surprising the WA EPA has rejected it,” said Martin Pritchard, Director of Strategy at Broome-based conservation group Environs Kimberley.  

The WA EPA has been assessing this proposal for 5 years and, in a letter to Woodside, it has been reported that there could be unacceptable impacts on endangered Blue Whales, Green Turtles and the reef itself,” said Mr Pritchard.  

Woodside withdrew its controversial plans for $80 billion LNG refineries on the Kimberley coast at James Price Point in 2013 after fierce opposition from locals and protests across the nation.

“The risks of destroying one of the world’s great coral reefs with oil and gas drilling are clearly too great, and we’re calling on Premier Roger Cook and Environment Minister Reece Whitby to also reject the threat to Scott Reef,” said Mr Pritchard.

It is understood that Woodside now has an opportunity to respond to the EPA, which will make its recommendation to the State Government. Both the State and Federal Governments will then make final decisions on whether or not the Browse project and drilling at Scott Reef can go ahead.