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.”

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.”

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.

The Kimberley $67.5 million resilience package announced today by the WA Premier fails to get to grips with the ruinously expensive costs of climate change, according to Broome-based conservation group Environs Kimberley.

The WA State Government's mid-term performance review in December revealed that the January 2023 floods in the Kimberley, induced by climate change, will cost taxpayers over $869 million. This extra $67.5 million brings the costs of climate change close to a billion dollars in just over a year.

Environs Kimberley Director of Strategy Martin Pritchard said:

“The Cook Government has described the Fitzroy Crossing floods as the worst in WA’s history but has yet to acknowledge that this is exactly what’s been predicted for the Kimberley with climate change. The amount of taxpayer funds going into climate change disasters is only going to increase — and we’re already looking at a billion dollars from 2023/4 alone.”

"Even as the impacts of climate change get worse, the Cook Government is sleepwalking into one of the biggest polluting industries in the world – oil and gas fracking – right here in the Kimberley.

Climate change scientists have estimated that if the oil-and-gas fracking industry in the Kimberley takes off, it could unleash three times Australia’s emissions of climate-changing CO2 into the atmosphere than our estimated emissions budget under the Paris Agreement[1].  

“The Premier Roger Cook is playing around the edges, while the Kimberley heads to becoming unlivable according to the climate modeling the WA Government itself uses.” [2]

“The Premier is pouring taxpayer money to fix up climate-change disasters, while at the same time allowing an oil-and-gas fracking industry to operate, which would produce globally significant climate-changing carbon pollution. This is wrong. If we want a resilient future, then these types of industries must be banned.”

Photo: Fitzroy River bridge, 2023 floods - Andrea Myers

[1] Climate Analytics Western Australia's gas gamble - implications of natural gas extraction in WA

[2] WA Government Western Australian Climate Change Projections (2021)