More than 700 people gathered on the steps of the WA Parliament on September 9 to demand that Labor ban fracking in the Kimberley.
The event was organised by Environs Kimberley and Lock the Gate Alliance and sponsored by Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network, Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Conservation Council of Western Australia and the Australian Conservation Foundation.
The call has extra urgency as the state Environmental Protection Authority and federal Labor are reviewing a proposal by Bennett Resources, a subsidiary of Texan company Black Mountain Energy, to drill wells in the West Kimberley. It is the most developed fracking proposal for the state and involves drilling 20 test wells in the Fitzroy River catchment.
A number of Traditional Owners had travelled from the Kimberley and the Pilbara to address the protest. They highlighted how climate change was already having a big impact on the land and ecosystems.
Mangala Martu Traditional Owner Nuriah Jadai said: “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.”
In 2017, the newly elected Labor government faced a widespread campaign against fracking, which arose because of the previous Liberal government’s plans. It conducted a review and, in 2018, banned fracking in the Perth, Peel, Southwest and Dampier Peninsula regions. But allowed it to continue in other parts of the state, including the Mid-West and the Kimberley.
Labor knew it would face opposition to fracking in and around Perth and Margaret River, but calculated it would get away with allowing it to take place in more remote areas. The expansion of the gas processing plant in the Pilbara at Murujuga (Burrup Hub) assumes that the facility will receive fracked gas, as well as offshore gas. Full-scale fracking for gas would mean thousands of wells and take billions of litres of water from precious aquifers.
ban_fracking_in_the_kimberly_petrina.jpg
