THE KIMBERLEY NEEDS YOU

The Kimberley needs you on 9 September. This is our moment to save it, or lose it forever to frackers.

By Martin Pritchard, Environs Kimberley Executive Director 

The Kimberley, a global ecological and cultural treasure, urgently needs everyone to attend the Rally for a Frack Free Kimberley at Parliament House in Perth at 12 noon on 9 September. Please mark your diaries now. The timing is crucial. Here’s why. 

The Cook Government says fracking is too risky in the Perth, Peel, Dampier Peninsula and South West regions, but have left tens of thousands of square kilometres open to this polluting industry in the Kimberley. 

Several companies hold petroleum leases where fracking is allowed in the Kimberley’s world-famous landscape, which people travel from around the world to experience. 

West Australian companies Buru Energy and Theia Energy, as well as Rey Resources, hold frackable leases, but the most imminent threat is Texan-based Black Mountain Energy (BME) who want to frack the heart of the Kimberley’s National Heritage-listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment. This great river is one of the last, intact free-flowing in the world, and is the lifeblood of the Kimberley.   

Fracking is one of the dirtiest methods of getting fossil fuels out of the ground and has been banned in countries around the world, as well as in the states of Victoria and Tasmania in Australia.  

It’s led to pollution of groundwater and surface water and to the industrialisation of landscapes with well pads, pipelines, pumping stations, wastewater ponds, seismic lines and mass networks of roads.  

In 2018 the McGowan Government banned fracking in much of the state, but with no justification left most of the Kimberley open to this highly polluting and risky industry.  

Right now, we face imminent danger from BME whose fracking proposal could lead to the drilling of thousands of fracking wells across the region. BME’s proposal to drill and frack exploratory wells near Fitzroy Crossing is currently being assessed by the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and the federal government's Department of Environment and Climate Change (DCCEEW).  

The final decision on whether the Kimberley will be fracked lies with the West Australian Minister for the Environment, Matthew Swinbourn and the Federal Minister for the Environment, Murray Watt. 

If the Kimberley’s Canning Basin is fully fracked, it could emit up to 900,000,000 tonnes of CO₂e (scope 1+3) over the next twenty years (Climate Analytics Fracking the Kimberley, 2024). That’s twice Australia’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions. This means if BME’s fracking is approved, it would be just the start of a huge new Australian “carbon bomb”.  

The Kimberley is already suffering extreme climate-driven weather and catastrophes including heat waves, coral bleaching and the disastrous record floods of 2023. CSIRO and BoM modelling shows the Kimberley will be unliveable if current emissions trajectory are perpetuated.  

 This is why we need you on 9 September. The wrecking ball of climate change is already wreaking havoc on our precious, life-giving natural world here in the Kimberley and beyond. What we need is a movement – made up of everyday people like you – a movement massive enough to force government to act and end fossil-fuel extraction and use.  

 Currently, rumblings from the Labor machine at the Department of Premier and Cabinet say they’ll approve Kimberley fracking. We have a small window in which to change their position, but it can be done.  

Please, will you join us on September 9 to take action to save the Kimberley?  

We know those reading this are good, progressive-minded, caring people who love nature, many with children and grandchildren. We know you’re aware of climate change and the catastrophe it will bring if we don’t act in time. We say to you, it is time. In fact, it is past time, but we still have a chance to stop runaway climate change.  

Please join us on September 9 and tell your neighbours, friends and family: “if you really care about your children’s future and the natural world, it’s time to join this crucial rally, before it’s too late.” 

We need numbers, we need people to take action. Growing our own food, recycling and minimising carbon footprints are important, but not enough, not by a long shot.  

It’s time to get out of comfort zones and organise in neighbourhoods, in friendship circles and family groups. We are so grateful to the thousands of people who support Environs Kimberley and our work to protect the Kimberley, but what we’re doing now as a collective is not enough.  

To our supporters who have done so much, we thank you. It’s now time to rise up and break through the discomfort some may still feel, of attending a rally. The Kimberley needs you. Our planet needs you. The moment is now.  

Header photo: A graphic illustration of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, showing its healthy state on the left and superimposed US frack fields on the right. 

_{[Opinions expressed are those of the author and not official policy of Greens WA]}