Wetlands are the lifeblood of the Kimberley – places of deep cultural meaning, rich biodiversity, and community connection.

Kimberley Traditional Owners and their ranger teams are dedicated to caring for wetlands, although these wetlands face growing pressures from climate change, weeds, feral animals, and water development. For more than a decade, Environs Kimberley has worked alongside The University of Western Australia (UWA) and Kimberley ranger teams to strengthen Indigenous-led care for these freshwater places.

Nyamba Buru Yawuru Country Managers Vaughn Lee, Cole Corpus, Rebecca Dobbs (UWA), Chase Pigram (sitting), Gaydar Lawford and Lyall Pedro discussing monitoring at Mimyagaman. Photo: Mark Cowan.

We are now expanding this partnership through the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Resilient Landscapes Hub with the Wetland Monitoring and Management Toolkit. The toolkit will be a publicly available guide offering practical tools for planning, doing and reviewing wetland monitoring.

Based on the work of Kimberley ranger teams, the toolkit is founded in three key principles:

• Start with Country priorities – work with ranger teams to use Healthy Country Plans as the foundation for wetland work.
• Make monitoring a full cycle – ask the right questions, choose monitoring tools that fit, and set up systems for managing and using data to feed back into management.
• Weave knowledge systems – consider Indigenous knowledge and Western science as separate, equally valid ways of knowing, that together provide a fuller picture of wetland health.

Jarndu Country Manager Romaniah Hunter at Tharndoo-Ngunjal (Lake Campion) with a poster summarising monitoring and management actions at this place. Photo: Mark Cowan.

Yawuru Case Study

One inspiring example is the Yawuru Environmental Services Unit who run two programs:

• Bilarra (wetland) monitoring, and
• Piezometer monitoring of groundwater across the Yawuru Indigenous Protected Area.

Recently, Yawuru Country Managers worked with EK and UWA to formally review both programs. These reviews helped the Yawuru team reflect on and interpret data using science and Yawuru knowledge, and helped clarify next steps for management. The partnership is also producing Standard Operation Procedures in field-friendly formats to support the Country Managers’ on-going monitoring, along with other support. By combining technical support with Yawuru knowledge, these processes are building skills and confidence for Yawuru to manage and adapt their programs independently into the future.

The Toolkit celebrates stories like this, along with practical, tested tools, strong partnerships, and Indigenous leadership in caring for wetlands. We’d like to acknowledge the Toolkit program supporters including the NESP Resilient Landscapes Hub, and Yawuru project supporters: the WA State Government (Aboriginal Ranger Program) and the WA State Government Natural Resource Management Program.

- Dr Michelle Pyke

This report first appeared as an article in our December 2025 EK News Issue 106.

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.

Gina Rinehart at Australian Bush Summit in Broome

Community call to protect the Kimberley from environmental destruction

Community members held a protest this morning outside the Australian Bush Summit event in Broome where Gina Rinehart was giving a video address.

Ms Rinehart has two pastoral properties in the Kimberley – Liveringa and Fossil Downs – both abut the National Heritage-listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River. Her past calls to take 325 billion litres/year of water out of the river have been met with stiff resistance from the community and Traditional Owners.

More than 43,000 people sent submissions to the WA government in 2021, calling for the protection of the river and groundwater from the type of development proposed by Ms Rinehart.

Concerns have been heightened recently with Ms Rinehart applying for five mining leases on her pastoral interests in the Kimberley.

Community protesting asking Gina Rinehard to not trash the Kimberley. Photo: Environs Kimberley.

Conservation group Environs Kimberley Executive Director Martin Pritchard said:

“The Kimberley is known the world over for its breathtaking landscapes, free-flowing rivers and intact tropical savannahs. The type of development that has been proposed by Ms Rinehart in the past is totally inappropriate and would see the bulldozing of tens of thousands of hectares.”

“The half-a-million visitors that come to the Kimberley every year don’t come to see farmland and mines; they come to see natural landscapes and experience the ancient culture.”

Mr Pritchard said there was also concerns about the critically endangered sawfish that have died on Liveringa station in recent years:

“Liveringa station appears to be a deathtrap for critically endangered sawfish, with 57 known to have died since 2018. We are calling for the artificial infrastructure on the waterway that appears to be trapping these endangered animals to be removed and the site rehabilitated.”

Regarding the applications for mining leases, Mr Pritchard said:

“We’re calling on Ms Rinehart to withdraw these mining leases; we don’t want to see the Kimberley turned into the next Pilbara. If Ms Rinehart doesn’t withdraw these leases then we call on the Cook government to reject them: they extend over waterways and are in the National Heritage-listed area of the West Kimberley – it’s no place for mining.”

The WA government’s new national parks around the Martuwarra Fitzroy River and Margaret River, which are jointly managed with Traditional Owners, are still awaiting final completion. The community is concerned that the finalisation of part two is being held back by Ms Rinehart on Fossil Downs.”

“We want to see the national parks along the Martuwarra Fitzroy River completed without delay, and if Ms Rinehart’s company is holding this back, then we call on the WA government to take back that part of the pastoral lease through compulsory acquisition,” Mr Pritchard said.

“Much of the land proposed for the next part of the national park is useless for cattle and not required as part of the pastoral lease. Ms Rinehart is renting this land from the citizens of Western Australia; she needs to take a responsible approach to the environment and make sure we have decent conservation parks along the Martuwarra Fitzroy River and Margaret River.”

Help protect the critically endangered freshwater sawfish here.

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 pristine Dunham River, located in the heart of Western Australia’s spectacular East Kimberley, is under threat from a proposed mining project by Tivan that could irreparably harm its unique ecosystem and cultural heritage. The Dunham River, flowing from the remote Durack Range to the Ord River, is one of the region’s most significant and untouched water systems, with extraordinary environmental and cultural values.

Kim Bridge, a Kimberley Traditional Owner and local businessman, is calling on the WA government to reject any plans that would destroy the river’s natural beauty and ecological integrity. The mining proposal, which targets critical minerals such as fluorite and vanadium, threatens the very heart of this pristine landscape, with the deposit located directly next to the waterway.

Dunham River Channel with Paperbark Forest. Photo: Jake Parker Imagery.

A hidden gem at risk

The Dunham River flows through some of the Kimberley’s most remote and awe-inspiring landscapes, from the rugged gorges near Halls Creek to the tranquil floodplains near Kununurra. The river, largely unknown to all but locals and a few seasoned adventurers, supports a thriving ecosystem and is a key part of the life-giving water that feeds Cambridge Gulf.

In the wet season, the region’s iconic Letterbox Gorge forms a dramatic bottleneck, with waters surging up the cliffs before spilling out onto the floodplain. These extraordinary natural features make the area a haven for biodiversity and a vital resource for local communities, including the Traditional Owners, who rely on the river for food, medicine, and recreation.

Letterbox Gorge. Photo: Jake Parker Imagery.

The ethical and environmental case against mining

While the push for minerals critical to the renewable energy transition is growing, many believe these valuable resources do not need to come at the cost of the Kimberley’s most pristine landscapes. The Dunham River’s catchment area is one such example, where mining activities could irreparably damage the land and water systems, and harm the very ecosystem that is vital to the region’s sustainability.

Kim Bridge strongly opposes the mining proposal, stating, “I’ve spent over 20 years walking this land, and I’ve seen firsthand how special this place is. The Dunham River and its surrounding landscapes are an integral part of our culture, and they must be protected for future generations. The proposed open-cut mine would be a disaster for the river and the community—it’s just too big a risk, and once the damage is done, it’s irreversible.”

Mr Bridge is also sending a strong message to potential investors that this venture cannot go ahead, it’s way too important an area, a pristine cultural and natural gem not to be damaged by mining. 

Once the public sees the proposed mine site, with its open-cut approach so close to a pristine river system, there will be an outcry. This is not the kind of business that will be supported by the community or the wider public.”

Kim Bridge, Dunham River. Photo: Jake Parker Imagery.

A call for government action

Conservationists are also speaking out against the mining proposal. Martin Pritchard, Acting CEO of Environs Kimberley, emphasised the need for sustainable development that protects the region’s globally significant landscapes. “This part of the Kimberley is one of the last truly wild places on Earth. To mine here would be completely out of step with any ethical standard of development. We need the renewable energy transition to happen, but not at the cost of destroying places like the Dunham River,” said Pritchard.

Both Bridge and Pritchard are calling on the WA government to protect the Dunham River and its catchment from destructive development. They urge Premier Roger Cook and Minister for Mines David Michael to take immediate action to rule out mining in this environmentally sensitive area.

“The Kimberley is one of the last unspoiled regions in Australia, and the government has a historic opportunity to protect it for future generations,” said Pritchard.

“We’re asking Minister for Water Simone McGurk to step up and lead the way in safeguarding these precious rivers before it’s too late.”

Martin Pritchard, Dunham River. Photo: Jake Parker Imagery.

Growing sustainable businesses not environmental destruction

The Country provides a wealth of opportunities for businesses to develop that focus on preserving and showcasing its natural beauty. “There’s enormous potential for eco-tourism, cultural experiences, and sustainable industries that respect the land,” he said. “But we must think beyond short-term profits and focus on the long-term health of this landscape. The Kimberley’s future lies in protecting places like the Dunham River, not destroying them.”