Rowley Shoals decision shows area tough

AAP 

February 04, 2013 3:22pm

THE decision not to re-release an oil and gas exploration permit near the Rowley Shoals Marine Park shows the offshore Kimberley region is proving difficult for the sector, an analyst says.

Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson will not re-offer the exploration permit W11-5, some 200km from the Kimberley coast and close to the Rowley Shoals, because no companies have applied for it since it was put up for grabs in April last year, his spokeswoman has confirmed.

There were also community concerns, she said.

Conservationists were up in arms in early 2012 when three permits including W11-5 were offered for exploration, although the hunt for oil and gas has been going on in the area for many years.

Shell's East Mermaid 1 well - smack in the middle of those three permits - was drilled in 1973 but abandoned due to technical problems and poor geological conditions.

The Rowley Shoals are a popular scuba diving site and are considered among the world's healthiest atolls.Woodside, no stranger to protests by conservationists with its contentious Browse gas hub plan at James Price Point north of Broome, is currently conducting seismic studies on permits north of Rowley Shoals, but says that activity is just to meet its obligations to retain the leases.

"This whole area is very difficult - you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it going," State One Stockbroking analyst Peter Kopetz said.

While WWF Australia was pleased the W11-5 well was temporarily off limits to the oil and gas sector, it urged the federal government to create a permanent exclusion zone to the industry in the area.

On Browse, Mr Kopetz said it would be the economics of the project, not the vocal opponents, that would be the deciding factor in whether it proceeded.

Shell, with its preference for floating gas production, did not appear to be pushing the operator Woodside hard and was sitting back to see what happened, Mr Kopetz said.

While WA Premier Colin Barnett remains insistent the Browse hub must be built onshore where royalties will flow through to the state - rather than offshore, where the royalties will go to the Commonwealth - the project proponents would only choose a site that met their profitability criteria, he said.

"Why would someone lose money to appease someone?" Mr Kopetz asked.

Broome's precious hidden water

Ben Collins, ABC

11 October, 2012 11:19AM AWST

The northern tourist town has a hidden lake without which Broome would struggle to survive.

Broome may seem to be something of a miracle: a lush oasis surviving between the desert and the ocean. With the Water Corporation expanding Broome's water infrastructure, it highlights the elusiveness of how this town by the bay, with no lakes or rivers, survives in the hot and harsh climate of North Western Australia.

The secret is under the ground. The Broome sandstone outcrops along the coastline and is famously imprinted by the feet of the biggest dinosaurs known to have walked the Earth. But it's where this ubiquitous layer of rock is hidden below the pindan scrub away from the coast that it serves a much more utilitarian service. Being porous and open to soaking downpours, the Broome sandstone acts like a massive underground rain tank. Each year, five gigalitres (that's 5,000,000,000 litres!) are pumped out of bores sunk into the Broome aquifer to water the gardens, run the showers, fill the pools, quench industry; and people even drink a tiny amount.

An unconfined aquifer is like a secret lake. There's a vast water body out there that grows with the rain and falls when we take from it. Hidden from view, it can be a bit harder to get a feel for this impressive water body. But like any surface water, Broome's little know water source is able to be polluted. A 2001 Water and River's Commission report describes Broome's water supply as vulnerable to industrial contamination. Fuel from tanks and other industrial chemicals can make their way into the water if there is a leak or spill at the surface. The report identifies plans to eventually move the town's airport to a site partially within the existing water reserve as "a potential source of significant groundwater contamination...".

Drilling through the relatively shallow Broome aquifer into deeper confined reservoirs of saltwater or oil also poses a contamination risk. The level of this risk is one of the major contentious points of the international fracking issue.

The Broome aquifer makes the town of Broome possible. Large amounts of clean drinking water in a region that receives an average of just 600 millimetres a year is almost miraculous. That it naturally contains some of the dissolved fluoride needed to keep local teeth shining is nothing short of extraordinary. But there are limits to this font of life.

The Water Corporation have begun works to increase Broome's water supply. Three new bores will be added to the bore field, and new water storage and pipelines are underway to keep water flowing to the ever-growing town. The Department of Water estimates that the Broome bore field could provide up to 10.6 gigalitres without destabilising the saline interface. This is where the fresh water held in the Broome sandstone under land meets the salt water within Broome sandstone under the sea. The risk is that if you take too much freshwater out of the aquifer, then the saltwater will be drawn under the land.

Controversy around the oil and gas industry in the Broome area has driven a focus on the amount of water used by industry. Woodside Petroleum have been investigating using the Broome aquifer as a water source for construction of a gas processing precinct they are considering building 60 kilometres north of Broome. During construction, up to 6 million litres will be used every day. Woodside says that approval to take this water from the Broome aquifer will only be granted by the Department of Water if it is deemed sustainable. The company says a temporary desalination plant will be used if they can't use the aquifer.

During operation of the proposed facility, 5 million litres of water will be needed each day or 1.8 gigalitres each year. This is more than all the water currently used by industry in Broome. A Woodside factsheet on the issues says "It is anticipated that operational water requirements will be met by a permanent desalination facility, powered by electricity generated from natural gas and use water drawn from the ocean."

Concerned residents have also asked questions about the supply of water to the resources industry via the Port of Broome. In 2010 water was barged out of Broome to supply the resources industries on Barrow Island. A desalination plant now supplies this need. But included in the Water Corporation's current Broome upgrades is the replacement of the main pipeline supplying the Broome port.

The CEO of the Broome Port Authority, Captain Vic Justice acknowledges that there is expected to be increased demand for water "...over the next few years in line with offshore resource industry development."

But there's a long way to go before the water supplied to industry via the Broome port is a big part of the overall use. Of the five gigalitres currently used in Broome, 1.3 gigalitres of this is by industry and commercial consumption. Of these 1.3 gigalitres, the Broome Port Authority reports that the most they've provided to industry since 2008 is 58 megalitres in 2010/11. That is under four percent of the water used by industry in Broome.

Even when Broome grows to the point that it uses the full 10.6 gigalitres calculated to be the sustainable extractable volume from the current bore field, predicted to happen around 2035, it's not the limit of the entire aquifer. While the Water Corporation encourages conservative water use as there is a cost to providing water and the associated energy consumption, there is potential to open new bore fields further north. It would seem that if Broome can avoid damaging its aquifer, water won't be the limiting factor in the size of the town blessed with an oasis in the hot dry north.

Kimberley Dinosaurs

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3603069.htm

NARRATION
In the far north of Western Australia, the Kimberley is a region where science has much to learn. The wildlife is abundant and diverse. The landscape is wild and unpolluted. And here on the Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome, things get really exciting. Only in recent years has its importance as a highway and nursery for humpback whales been recognised. But there's more.

Mark Horstman
What's unique about this coastline is that the largest animals on Earth today are swimming past the footprints of the largest animals ever to have walked the planet.

NARRATION
Written in this sandstone is a dinosaur story from deep time.

Dr Steve Salisbury
There's nowhere else in the world you can come and wander along these beautiful beaches, and come across some of the most important dinosaur tracks anywhere on the planet.

Louise Middleton
It's literally years of study that people need to be here, because we're finding new stuff every day, all over the place, different things. It's a wonderland.

NARRATION
Uniquely, the dinosaur tracks here are interwoven with Aboriginal songlines and creation stories.

Richard Hunter
Well, the footprints are like our ancestors, yeah? They were the first... the first living thing in this country.

NARRATION
But just as science begins to appreciate the full significance of the trackways, their security is threatened by a massive industrial development. For the time on television, in a Catalyst exclusive, you're about to see dinosaur fossils that have never been revealed before. They're found in rocky platforms along the pristine beaches north of Broome.

Mark Horstman
All this is the Broome Sandstone. It runs for 200km along this coastline, up to 280m thick. Where it's exposed between the low tide and the high tide, you find this incredible array of dinosaur footprints, wherever you look. Without seeing it with my own eyes, I would never have believed that this is possible.

NARRATION
130 million years ago it was much more crowded here.

Dr Steve Salisbury
This particular area, the Broome Sandstone, it's the only look we get at Australia's dinosaur fauna during this part of the early Cretaceous. We have no other sites in the continent of this age.

STEVE SALISBURY
Maybe something there, and then it becomes a lot clearer.

NARRATION
Palaeontologist Steve Salisbury is exploring an extinct ecosystem as we walk through a landscape frozen in time.

Dr Steve Salisbury
Most of the track sites that we see probably only represent, you know, between a few days and a couple of weeks, 130 million years ago, so they really do provide a fantastic snapshot.

NARRATION
At the time this was a vast river plain of muddy swamps and sandbars. Trampling through here were enormous herbivores known as 'sauropods', similar to Brachiosaurus or Diplodocus.

Mark Horstman
There are very few places in the world - and nowhere else in Australia - where I can sit in the footstep of a giant dinosaur. This is one of them, and so is that and that and that and that.

Dr Steve Salisbury
Here, what we get with the tracks is direct evidence of where the dinosaurs were, how many of them there were, and what they were doing, and that's stuff that we often can't get from fossil bones.

NARRATION
So far, Steve and his team have recorded the track types of more than 16 different dinosaurs. The most abundant animals in the track sites are sauropods. They shared these habitats with a diverse number of ornithopods, along with various thyreophorans or armoured dinosaurs. Least common are the carnivorous theropods. The palaeontologists rely on the local knowledge of Louise Middleton. She's explored the tracks with the Aboriginal community for nearly 30 years.

Louise Middleton
Finding Steve and working with the Queensland University has been fantastic for us, and also the fact that the Goolarabooloo people have trusted Steve to undertake this work and to hold certain knowledge that's really not shared with uninitiated men usually.

Dr Steve Salisbury
See, I reckon that's a trackway, just that one, and this is a second one.

Louise Middleton
Yeah, but this one's going in a different direction, mate.

NARRATION
For the past year they've been measuring the stride, pace and angle of the footprints to identify the animals that made them, even whether they were adults or juveniles. The grain of the sandstone is examined in fine detail to work out the habitat it came from. The locations of thousands of tracks are logged and photographed, some as stereo images to make three-dimensional animations. Real 3-D models are made too, using silicone casts. This one is a 10m-long carnivorous theropod, the only track of its type on this coast and perhaps Australia.

Dr Steve Salisbury
Silicone that we can use now sets really quickly - I mean we couldn't have done this ten years ago - and it's ideal for this sort of setting where we've gotta race against the tide.

Mark Horstman
Yeah.

Mark Horstman
You've gotta be quick to study the fossils here. This tide is racing. And this was dry a few minutes ago. The tidal range is up to 10m, and the fossils are only visible at the lowest of low tides, so that's for a few hours for a few days for a few months every year.

NARRATION
The tidal currents and storm surges constantly cover and uncover trackways with sand. Today Steve's team gets to see one for the first time.

Mark Horstman
Oh, yeah.

Dr Steve Salisbury
So, it's really nice. So this is one of the big ornithopod tracks. You can see three toe impressions and one toe pad there, central one here and then this is the second digit coming down into a big, fleshy heel pad. It's a big animal. That's, like... 8m to 9m long, even bigger. That's incredible. It's covered in big sauropod tracks and a number of different types of ornithopod tracks. There's some really clear trackways just over there of potentially a new type of dinosaur.

Dr Steve Salisbury
19.5

NARRATION
But their excitement is tempered by where we are - within the proposed footprint of one of the world's largest gas factories.

Dr Steve Salisbury
We'd probably be underneath the breakwater. I mean, the port is right there, so this would go, we would lose it.

NARRATION
The Woodside proposal involves piping gas from deep offshore wells to an onshore processing plant and export terminal, and dredging a port for LNG tankers right here on this stretch of coast.

Mark Horstman
Behind me is James Price Point, the proposed location for Woodside's gas hub, its refinery and its harbour. To give you some sense of the scale of the whole project, the breakwaters that they plan to build to protect the harbour to load the gas, extend 3km out to sea, way past where we are now.

NARRATION
It begs the question - where would the rock to build these massive seawalls come from? In a written statement to Catalyst, Woodside said their port construction would avoid the dinosaur footprints, but...

Woman
If footprints, or other fossiles, are discovered during construction, Woodside will identify how the footprints will be avoided, salvaged or scientifically documented.

Dr Steve Salisbury
I don't think we should be making the types of really important decisions about the future of this area that are currently being made by government and industry, and without really knowing what we've got. I mean, it's crazy.

NARRATION
Many agree, and attempts to start construction are being staunchly opposed.

Man
Woodside has no Section 18 to destroy this country.

NARRATION
Traditional owners standing in their own country are issued 'move on' notices by the police. For Goolarabooloo law boss Richard Hunter and his countrymen, the fight is about much more than fossils - it's about cultural survival.

Richard Hunter
You know, we have a songline... We're talking about culture - once they break the songline, well, then there's... We have nothing.

Louise Middleton
Breaking that songline, it's like someone going into the Vatican and smashing the chalices or vandalising the altar - that's the significance and the strength of these dinosaur footprints. They're the creation beings, and to interrupt or destroy that is spitting in your soul.

NARRATION
Every hour spent searching between the tides brings important discoveries, all in the area proposed for the gas development.

Dr Steve Salisbury
170?

Man
170, yeah.

(Both chuckle)

Man
It's gigantic.

Mark Horstman
What have you found?

Dr Steve Salisbury
Probably one of the biggest dinosaur tracks in the world. That enormous impression there is a handprint of a sauropod. Where there's a hand, nearby there's gotta be a foot, and look out...

Mark Horstman
Oh, hang on.

Dr Steve Salisbury
You're treading in it there. That huge big depression is a footprint.

Mark Horstman
That's incredible.

Dr Steve Salisbury
So, it's about...

NARRATION
Currently, the record size for a sauropod foot is 1.5m.

Dr Steve Salisbury
And that footprint's about 1.7m long, yeah, give or take a bit 'cause it's eroded. But this is an enormous animal.

NARRATION
An animal with feet the size of truck tyres would be 7m or 8m high at the hip and at least 35m long.

Dr Steve Salisbury
Think if there's a leg attached to this foot, going up. These were truly gigantic.

Mark Horstman
Yeah. Fantastic.

NARRATION
If tracks of the world's biggest sauropods are impressive then how about rock-solid evidence of an Australian stegosaur?

Dr Steve Salisbury
It's got four stubby little fingers on the hand and then quite a fat three-toed foot, and that combination is really characteristic of stegosaurs. We walk around these rocks now. It's a bit slippery and we go for slides and stuff. He has too. So, you can see here's his left foot, right foot, and then as he's come into this one with his left foot, he's gone for a bit of a... slip down there. It looks like there's a double step - he's kind of slid for a bit and then had to gain his grip, and got to the bottom there and probably quite relieved that he's made it... (Chuckles) ...and then continued up that way.

NARRATION
This find is of global importance. Without tracks like these, we would never know that stegosaurs once existed here.

Louise Middleton
When I found it I realised instantly the significance of it, and I just literally fell on my knees and cried, because I felt that if we can't save James Price Point with these tracks then we'll never save anything.

NARRATION
Steve believes the entire 200km of dinosaur coast is worthy of protection as World Heritage.

Dr Steve Salisbury
It should be conserved in its entirety. There's a whole scientific story that we're only just beginning to understand that requires knowledge of all the track sites together and linking all of them to try to understand the overall context of everything. I mean, you can do dinosaur ecology here.
Topics: Environment, Fossils, Geology

Reporter: Mark Horstman
Producer: Mark Horstman
Researcher: Mark Horstman
Camera: Greg Heap

Second Camera: Richard Costin

Sound: Adam Toole

Editor: Wayne Love
Kate Deegan

STORY CONTACTS

Dr Steve Salisbury
Palaeontologist,
University of Queensland

Louise Middleton
Dinosaur tracker, Broome

Richard Hunter
Traditional custodian, Goolarabooloo

RELATED INFO


Dr Steve Salisbury’s Vertebrate Palaeontology & Biomechanics Lab, Uni of Qld

Tony Thulborn (PLoS, 2012): Impact of Sauropod Dinosaurs on Lagoonal Substrates in the Broome Sandstone (Lower Cretaceous), Western Australia

Tony Thulborn on Radio National’s The Science Show

Uncertainty grows around Kimberley coast gas hub (7.30, ABC)

Report and recommendations of the WA Environmental Protection Authority – Browse Liquefied Gas Precinct, July 2012 (pdf)

WA Department of State Development – summary of measures to protect dinosaur fossils (pdf)

WA Dept of State Development: Palaeontology Survey of the Broome Sandstone - Browse LNG Precinct Report (pdf)

Woodside Browse LNG project

Kimberley heritage sold out by 'conspiracy of deceit'

GRAHAM LLOYD, ENVIRONMENT EDITOR 

From:The Australian 

September 08, 2012 12:00AM

TO understand the Aboriginal heritage concerns of Kimberley law man Joseph Roe, it is necessary to appreciate the cultural meaning of life and death. How ancestral essence flows below the surface of the ground and the worlds are bridged by songs that contain the codes of behaviour fundamental to sustaining the balance and wellbeing of the land and its people.


These concepts do not sit easily with the practicalities of modern-day life in an export-driven world.


Roe and other Kimberly law bosses are responsible for keeping their culture alive in an area now targeted by West Australian Premier Colin Barnett and Woodside for a gas hub. So, when they say protection of the area is a matter of life and death, it is easy to dismiss their concerns as histrionic.


But for more than the past three years some of Australia's most respected Aboriginal heritage lawyers have worked pro bono on Roe's behalf.


From their Sydney offices, the lawyers have been shocked at what they say has been the contempt with which the West Australian government and Woodside have run roughshod over the state's heritage laws.


And indigenous heritage has been sold short by the Kimberley Land Council, which may have had the best of intentions but has lacked an ethical spine.


The lawyers say their investigations reveal a trail of deceit in which records that prove the legitimacy of Roe's heritage claims have been overlooked or ignored.


The Kimberley Land Council, they argue, has worked with Woodside and the state against the interests of some of its own clients (Roe and the Goolarabooloo people).


Woodside has been prepared to tell the state government to withdraw warnings that it may be acting in breach of the law that could put its directors in jail. And the government has been happy to comply with its wishes.


The lawyers have demanded Woodside be prosecuted for criminal acts of damage but their requests have fallen on deaf ears. An application for emergency protection has sat on the desk of federal Environment Minister Tony Burke for more than 12 months.


Since the company bulldozers first went in, under the protection of state police, a 12-month statute of limitations on prosecution for the initial alleged breaches of the Aboriginal Heritage Act has expired, without the State's investigation of the alleged breaches reaching a conclusion.


James Price Point is not another Hindmarsh Island, where accounts of secret Aboriginal business surfaced late in the day to derail a proposed development.


Documents prove that heritage values at James Price Point were identified long before the gas hub was first mooted.


It is not about whether or not there should be an export gas hub in the Kimberley.


Or whether an indigenous man with a flawed past has been seduced by the limelight of a national environmental cause.


The fact is, Dampier law bosses have never given their consent for a gas hub at the James Price Point site being pushed by Barnett and Woodside.


The traditional custodians have suggested a less culturally sensitive site further to the north that would allow the gas project to go ahead, the $1.3 billion compensation package for local indigenous groups to continue and what is arguably the nation's most defined songline - a path made by Dreamtime ancestors - to remain intact.


The area's significance, and Roe's authority to speak for it, have been confirmed by Scott Cane, one of Australia's most respected anthropologists, who was commissioned to investigate by the West Australian Department of Indigenous Affairs this year.


According to Cane's report, there is no doubt Roe has a detailed knowledge of the core narrative that defines the Northern Tradition.


"It was readily apparent in conservation with Joe that he knows the religious narrative intimately, has a comprehensive grasp of the song cycles associated with the narrative, and is in command of the relationship between that narrative and the landscape in which it is embedded," he said.


"It was my understanding from Joe Roe that the reasons for maintaining the integrity of the tradition go beyond issues of health and wellbeing into the core law and customs that define regional Aboriginal society and so give rights to land in this part of the Kimberley."


For Chalk and Fitzgerald lawyer Andrew Chalk, Cane's findings amplify the injustice that has been done to what he describes as perhaps the nation's most comprehensively mapped songline.


"I have been doing this (cultural heritage work) since before native title existed," Chalk says. "I was involved in the drafting of the Native Title Act. But I have not seen instances where senior people within the state or within a representative body have been so willing to flout their own legal duties to get an outcome.


"It is about the willingness to put aside lawful process within the Kimberley Land Council and the willingness of the KLC to put aside lawful process within the KLC and for the state to turn a blind eye to its own laws - which carry serious criminal penalties," Chalk says.


It is a window into how heritage administration is managed in a mining boom in Western Australia, where no matter how significant an area is the government seems happy to look the other way. You will not find another dreaming track in Australia that has been so carefully mapped for such a long period and where in the face of an economic opportunity there is such a preparedness on the part of all the key agencies to ignore the evidence.


"The native title representative body and the state government's heritage organisation actually want to put their heads in the sand and deny the existence and significance of it."


According to Chalk, the foundation on which the injustice is built has been the willingness of the Kimberley Land Council to forget or ignore cultural heritage work it was involved in before the gas hub proposal ever existed.


Lengthy correspondence between the state Department of Indigenous Affairs and Woodside clearly shows how tough the company has decided to play.


After undertaking its own ground surveys last year and rediscovering heritage information that was accepted in court and by the Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee more than 20 years ago, the department wrote to Woodside advising its development work at James Price Point may jeopardise a heritage site.


Woodside rejected the advice and successfully lobbied for it to be withdrawn. It declined to comment on correspondence with the government, in which it said the timing of the new heritage information was "vexatious".


But, in a statement, a company spokesperson said: "Woodside is working closely with senior traditional owners to identify and carefully manage Aboriginal culture and heritage at the site of the proposed Browse LNG Precinct.


"We conduct our activities under the supervision of traditional owner monitors. Comprehensive ethnographic and archeological surveys conducted by traditional owners have been completed to identify the location and nature of Aboriginal heritage sites."


A spokesperson for the West Australian Minister for Education, Energy and Indigenous Affairs, Peter Collier, confirmed the advice to Woodside had been withdrawn. "The department withdrew the letter and maps as the content was - upon review - unhelpful and did not properly advise Woodside of known registered sites," the spokesman says.


The Heritage Act is meant to protect all sites, registered or not.


Chalk is highly critical of the way the KLC has handled the heritage issues at James Price Point.


Greens MLA Robin Chapple is prepared to be charitable and say the KLC lacks the "corporate knowledge" of work that has been done in the area over two decades.


But, according to Chalk, the land council has pushed the gas hub proposal "without reference to the critical Aboriginal heritage significance of the area". A meeting of law bosses in 2005 supported the Roe position that the area was too sensitive to be developed. But the KLC pushed ahead.


"There is no issue the KLC has every right to push economic development and to propose a gas hub at this location," Chalk says. "What they don't have the right to do, though, is to mislead about the significance of the area, or bury records they hold, or to deny the legitimacy of positions they have pushed under affidavit in the past."


Chalk's complaints are about process. He says Woodside could have sought upfront approval for its works under the Aboriginal Heritage Act, but chose not to.


And he says the state has been prepared to participate in an abuse of process to strengthen Woodside's hand. He accuses the company of acting outside the bounds of its heritage mission statement.


"Even if it is legal, should a company like Woodside be bulldozing a place like this?" Chalk asks.


Nonetheless, he has some sympathy for the KLC's position.


"Two years ago, we would have given the same advice as the KLC that the prospects of stopping this project are so remote you are better off taking the compensation package and trying to manage the impacts because in all likelihood it is going to go ahead," Chalk says. "But, equally, you have an ethical duty to present all of the evidence as to the significance of the area and not to hide the bits that don't make your advice easier to give."


Chalk says the difficulty for the KLC is that, no matter how logical its reasoning may be, Roe's responsibilities under indigenous law do not allow for compromise.


"It is no different to saying to some Orthodox Jews, look, the Wailing Wall and East Jerusalem is not worth the grief.


"I am no fan of what is happening in Israel but - to people to whom that is such a sacred symbol - the arguments about economics and everything else don't carry much weight. That is why this issue won't go away."

Gas giant Woodside silences advice on songlines

GRAHAM LLOYD, ENVIRONMENT EDITOR 

From:

The Australian 

September 08, 2012 12:00AM

WOODSIDE wrote to the West Australian government at least twice last year asking it to withdraw written advice about the possible existence of significant Aboriginal sites in areas disturbed by its proposed $40 billion James Price Point gas hub.

Any damage to the sites integral to an important Aboriginal men's song cycle could leave the resources giant and its directors liable for criminal prosecution under the state's Aboriginal Heritage Act.

A government spokesman confirmed that the Barnett government succumbed to Woodside's wishes and withdrew the letters.

Andrew Chalk, lawyer for indigenous law boss Joseph Roe, who claims cultural responsibility for the area, said Woodside's actions had been "like asking a burglar not to tell a buyer that goods for sale are stolen".

Mr Chalk said letters from Woodside to the state government underscored how the government and the company had run roughshod over heritage concerns at the site near Broome in pursuit of development.

He said that the song cycle had been well documented for more than two decades but many details of it are considered men's business and must remain secret.

The WA Department of Indigenous Affairs wrote to Woodside after evaluating heritage claims following contentious site works in the middle of last year.

The visit followed the discovery of heritage records that pre-dated the Woodside proposal and included interviews with Mr Roe.

Lawyers claim information about the area's heritage value in the Kimberley Land Council's possession since 1991 was not included in the heritage advice given to Woodside more recently.

The material pre-dates Woodside's decision to investigate the gas hub site.

Scott Cane, an anthropologist commissioned by Indigenous Affairs, has confirmed Mr Roe's standing as a significant figure in indigenous law for the area.

"It is clear to me that his knowledge of the religious tradition is comprehensive and his commitment to that 'law' is consistent with both his knowledge of the tradition and his ancestral responsibility to it," Dr Cane wrote in his report on July 16.

Dr Cane's report follows the rejection of DIA's advice about the significance of the area the previous year.

In a letter to the state government dated September 5, 2011, Woodside thanked the department for withdrawing an earlier letter expressing the potential significance of the area. It asked that further advice from the department in relation to a "possible site" in the vicinity of the proposed gas hub also be withdrawn.

Woodside had said the area involved was too big and the timing was vexatious.

The company objected to details of the significance of the area being withheld on the basis they were for initiated males.

Woodside said it was being denied "procedural fairness".

A spokesman for WA Education, Energy and Indigenous Affairs Minister Peter Collier confirmed the advice to Woodside had been withdrawn. "The department withdrew the letter and maps as the content was, upon review, unhelpful and did not properly advise Woodside of known registered sites," he said.

A Woodside spokeswoman declined to comment specifically on communications with the state government.

But in a statement, Woodside said the company was working closely with senior traditional owners to identify and carefully manage Aboriginal cultural heritage at the site of the proposed gas hub. "We conduct our activities under the supervision of traditional owner monitors," it said.

"Comprehensive ethnographic and archeological surveys conducted by traditional owners have been completed to identify the location and nature of Aboriginal heritage sites."

Woodside would seek all additional consents and approvals needed to conduct any activities in areas known to contain Aboriginal heritage.

The project, with a $1.3bn social benefit package for Kimberley Aborigines, has split Broome's indigenous community and drawn environmental protesters from all over Australia.

Fighting for the whales

Flip Prior, The West  

8 August 2012

"Babies breaching," someone shouted, and everyone rushed to the side of Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin vessel, binoculars at the ready under the black Jolly Roger flag flapping in the breeze.

In the distance, several kilometres from the Dampier Peninsula coastline, an adult whale slapped her tail and blew plumes of water as her young calf playfully breached beside her, silvery in the early morning sun.

Kimberley naturalist Richard Costin pointed back to the coast, where red rocks loomed above bright white sand.

"We're just coming into the development area for the proposed James Price Point gas hub … (it) has the highest concentration of whales on the Kimberley coast," he said.

"From here through to the Lacipede Islands, the work that we've done in the last three or four years has pinpointed this area as being perhaps the most important area on the Kimberley coast for the whales.

"The whales are actually calving all the way along the coast … between the 80 mile beach and just to the north of Camden Sound. The calving grounds, up until now, have been totally undisturbed."

The whales were the first of 22 - including at least 10 calves - to be spotted today between Broome and James Price Point, the site of the State Government and Woodside's proposed gas hub.

For former Greens Senator Bob Brown, the sight proved his point: that the area was the "world's biggest whale nursery" and the wrong place for the development.

"This is a national whale sanctuary - here we are to protect it," Mr Brown said. "The whale nursery cannot co-exist safely with a gas factory. As a nation, we should be protecting it."

How many whales inhabit these Kimberley waters - and what effect the proposed gas hub will have on their annual migration from Antarctic waters in the south to give birth in the north- is proving the latest flashpoint in a long series of battles between those for and against the hub.

Woodside has said the most important calving ground for the whales are much further north in Camden Sound and that the impacts on whales passing by the proposed development can be adequately managed and mitigated.

Others - including the crew of the controversial anti-whaling vessel Steve Irwin - disagree.

Earlier this week, the vessel sailed into Broome to ramp up the campaign against the proposed gas hub by drawing international attention to whales in the region in a bid to embarrass those who are part of the project.

This morning, surveying the calm waters and blue skies, Captain Malcolm Holland admitted it was not the Sea Shepherd's typical kind of campaign Usually, the crew are in the Antarctic, dodging bullets, water cannons, acoustic devices and flash bang grenades in stormy seas, getting rammed by ships manned by the armed Japanese coastguard.

However, he sees the Kimberley action as just as vital, pointing out it involves the same whales.

"This is a very different kind of campaign … what we're doing on this campaign is showing what it's like up here - that they're building a heavy industrial facility and international sea port right alongside the biggest humpback whale nursery in Australia," he said.Despite the pirate motifs and camouflage paint all over the ship, the Sea Shepherd has a polite crew, reminded by signs all over the place of the strict rules: no drinking, no smoking, no fraternising, no shouting.





Cow and calf off Quandong Point. Picture: Annabelle Sandes/Kimberley MediaVisitors on board are also hardly an anarchistic bunch - among them, rich former Melbourne merchant banker Phillip Wallon, now an extremely wealthy philanthropist who has given millions of dollars to supporting the Sea Shepherd's cause.



This morning, he threw in an extra $100,000 and suggested others who could afford it should do the same.

"This is a battle that we just cannot afford to lose," he said. "10,000 entire species are wiped out every year because of the actions of one species … that is a crime of unimaginable proportions."

"I come from a corporate background. I am pro business … I don't want to shut anything down. But I also want to make sure that we take care of all the externalities - the costs that business imposes on communities and the environment must also be taken into account."

Retired Queens Counsel Murray Wilcox, said he was interested in seeing how close the whales intersected with the site of the proposed gas hub.

"It's obviously a very close relationship," he said.

He denied the Sea Shepherd was run by anarchists: "I think this is people who are very concerned about an issue that should concern us all," he said.

"I think the Kimberley is one of the most beautiful areas in Australia - certainly one of the most pristine areas - and we have an opportunity to preserve a fairly well untouched wilderness area.

"If we don't, there will be nothing left for our grandchildren. It is possible to exploit the gas reserves from the Browse basin without building a Kimberley gas plant."

Environs Kimberley spokesman Martin Pritchard agrees. He said research carried out by community volunteers had counted 1441 humpback whales passing through since July 1, 1200 within 8km of the shore.

However, he said the Environmental Protection Authority had stated that on their annual northern migration, about 1000 whales would be expected to go past during an entire season.

"In three weeks, just looking four hours a day, we're already had 1200 whales counted and about 90 cow-calf pairs," Mr Pritchard said. "It's actually proving Woodside and the State Government's research wrong."

Mr Costin said he had no faith in the research commissioned by Woodside and the State Government and even believes the results were deliberately fudged.

"When you look at the results at face value … the survey work … that is being relied on is totally unreliable," he said.

"And no-one really understands what effect the discharges from an LNG facility processing 50 million tonnes per annum would have on the marine environment."

Sea Shepherd Australia spokesman Jeff Hansen pledged that the ship would return to defend the whales in Kimberley waters for as long as it took to stop the project from going ahead.

"We do our best every year to save as many whales as we can in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the Australian Antarctic Territory," he said.

"If the Australian government is not going to protect those waters, then the very least they can do is make sure that their largest humpback whale nursery is safe and protected, here north of Broome.

"If they're under threat here, then we're here to do whatever we can within the law to protect them here."People all around the world have the right to know that this is the largest humpback whale nursery and that the gas hub will go right through the middle of it."

Sea Shepherd to take on Woodside

Andrew Darby

Hobart correspondent for Fairfax Media

July 17, 2012 - 10:09AM

Sea Shepherd conservationists are to mount an Australian mainland campaign for the first time, against the $35 billion Browse gas hub project.

The activists will this week set off in their flagship, Steve Irwin, to draw attention to potential impacts on humpback whales of the giant project near Broome, Western Australia.

In alliance with the former Greens leader, Bob Brown, and local Aboriginal people, the activists will steam from Melbourne to the Kimberley coast - the main breeding ground for the booming West Australian humpback population.

"I'll be helping to lead this trip to draw attention to the fact that this is not a good place for a giant gas factory, with huge ships coming to and fro," said Dr Brown, who has joined the Sea Shepherd advisory board.
Woodside and its partners will pipe gas ashore from the Browse Basin for processing and export at James Price Point, if one of Australia's largest energy projects gains final investment approval.

It includes dredging a 20-kilometre channel and building a two-kilometre jetty to access the liquefied natural gas from an onshore plant.

Impacts on marine fauna such as whales, dugongs and turtles were admitted when the West Australian government gave the environmental green light to the project yesterday.

The West Australian Environment Protection Authority's chairman, Paul Vogel, said the region's humpback stock had increased "exponentially" since last century's whaling, despite the parallel increase in iron ore and petroleum projects along the coast.

"Creating any industrial undertaking, particularly one of this magnitude, will have an environmental impact. However, these impacts and risks can be managed to an acceptable level," Dr Vogel said.

Conditions imposed by Dr Vogel include suspending marine pile driving and blasting for part of the humpback migration season. He made the approval decision alone after four other EPA board members declared conflicts of interest.

Until now Sea Shepherd has seen Australia mainly as a base for its hard-fought campaigns against Japanese whalers in the Antarctic.

A group of Aboriginal leaders of the Golarabooloo people told Sea Shepherd in a letter: "We have seen the work you have done to protect the whales in the Southern Ocean.

"We would appreciate any support you can give us to protect the humpback in our Sea Country from the proposal to build an industrial port at James Price Point for LNG export."

The activists' leader, Paul Watson, replied that the project was disrespectful to the area's original people and marine species.

"There are sacred places in this world that should not be scarred with the ugliness of greed and disrespect for nature," Mr Watson said.

He said he would not be able to join the ship for the vigil. He is being detained on bail in Germany while its courts consider an extradition request from Costa Rica over 10-year-old navigation charges. Papers outlining the case have arrived in Germany from Costa Rica, he said.

Sea Shepherd's Australian director, Jeff Hansen, said the Kimberley whale campaign would not be aggressive. "Australians need to see what's at stake there," Mr Hansen said.

Dr Brown said political leaders from Western Australia and Canberra would be invited to join the voyage. "We'll find room for them," he said.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/sea-shepherd-to-take-on-woodside-20120717-2277s.html#ixzz20q7WtlMy

James Price Point a nursery for Humpback whales: Independent study

Humpback whales were observed giving birth in the coastal corridor off James Price Point, where Woodside is proposing to build a gas industrial complex, an independent land-based whale survey has found.

“The survey was undertaken in response to the strategic assessment report for James Price Point that lacked a land-based whale survey and an assessment of behavioral data,” said Jenita Enevoldsen from The Wilderness Society.

“Contrary to the strategic assessment report, the independent study observed a large number of whale calves within 5km of James Price Point, highlighting the potential importance of the area as a whale nursery,” said Maddie Goddard - independent marine scientist, representing the Broome No gas Campaign.

“We also observed a significant reduction in the number of whale sightings when operational drilling rigs were present at James Price Point. These findings raise serious questions about the potential impacts of the proposed construction of a port precinct, especially the blasting and dredging. Habitat degradation¹ is known as the single biggest threat to this species outside of the resumption of commercial whaling”.

“This is another example of independent community science highlighting inadequacies in the environmental assessment for this proposed development. The Environmental Protection Authority must question the reliability of the strategic assessment report in making any decision about the suitability of this site for development,” said Jenita Enevoldsen, marine campaigner for The Wilderness Society.

¹ DEH 2005, Humpback whale Recovery Plan 2005-2010, http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/recovery/m-novaeangliae/pubs/m-novaeangliae.pdf

Woodside halts drilling at claimed culturally significant site

Rania SpoonerSydney Morning Herald

Woodside Petroleum has agreed to stop drilling at the controversial site marked for a $35 billion gas hub, only moments before a Goolarabooloo man’s application to halt works was due to heard by a Perth Supreme Court today.

It is understood Woodside would continue other earth moving works at the James price point site in Western Australia's Kimberly region, but would not touch sections on the coastline and dunes, which applicant Thomas Hunter claims have cultural and environmental Importance.

Mr Hunter is represented by the Environmental Defender's Office principal solicitor Josie Walker who said an agreement to throw out the application had been reached half an hour before they appeared in court.Mr Hunter has taken the Shire of Broome and Woodside to court claiming an important report was not considered by the Kimberly Joint Development Assessment Panel prior to Woodside obtaining approvals to work at the site in Frebruary.

The EDO claim the approvals are invalid and are seeking a determination from the court, which could mean longer delays.

A lawyer appearing for the WA Minister for Planning suggested he may attempt to join the case.

A final investment decision on the hub is not expected until the middle of 2013.

The matter has been adjourned until June 15.

Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/business/woodside-halts-drilling-at-claimed-culturally-significant-site-20120608-200r1.html#ixzz1xAvq3cKI

Big bill for Browse pipeline

Peter Kerr, The West Australian

June 5, 2012, 7:18 am

Already struggling to contain costs on the Browse LNG project, Woodside and its joint venture partners face a multi-billion bill for a 650km domestic gas pipeline.

Premier Colin Barnett said that while negotiations over the project had yet to be concluded it would be expected - as for other WA ventures - to supply up to 15 per cent of its gas to WA industry.

To maximise the value of this gas, he said that a land-backed pipeline from James Price Point to Port Hedland to join the State's pipeline network would ultimately be necessary, rather than allowing the partners to provide offsetting gas from other developments as allowed under State Agreements.

"I do not rule anything in or out, but to get the value of what is a significant amount of domestic gas would require a pipeline to be built at some stage," he said.

"Obviously, if domestic gas is there, it will not be hard to find someone (other than government) to build a pipeline to run the gas down to Port Hedland," he told a post-Budget estimates hearing.

While Woodside and its partners may be able to find customers or infrastructure groups to underpin the cost of the pipeline, estimated to be in the billions, they may be forced to stump up the funds themselves.

Woodside, which operates the venture on behalf of partners BHP Billiton, Shell, Chevron, BP and Mitsui and Mitsubishi, would not be drawn on the issue, saying yesterday only that it was continuing "discussions with government around domestic gas".

Analysts think the massive greenfields venture will cost somewhere between $30 billion and an eye-watering $50 billion, potentially threatening the viability of the development.

BHP and Chevron are said to favour piping gas to the existing North West Shelf plant at Karratha to help offset declining reserves in that project's fields and to shave as much as $15 billion from the cost of processing Browse gas at James Price Point.

Having to build a land-based pipeline for domestic gas may give BHP and Chevron greater sway in their arguments to build a costlier but one-off sea-based pipeline to Karratha and existing LNG facilities and its domestic gas plant.

Opposition spokesman Bill Johnston said the Premier needed give the partners certainty.

"One of the biggest dangers to developments in this State is the Premier changing his mind," Mr Johnston said.

"There is capacity in the domestic reservation policy to swap gas, to allow a project to come on stream without having to build unnecessary infrastructure.

"It may be that the volumes from Browse justify a domestic gas pipeline, but like the troubled Albany pipeline project the Premier can't wish it into existence."

The Browse partners have delayed a final investment decision on their project until the middle of next year.

BUSINESS 'Mini dolphin' discovered near site of gas port

GRAHAM LLOYD, ENVIRONMENT EDITOR 

From:

The Australian 

June 02, 2012 12:00AM

A MINIATURE dolphin species has been discovered off the Kimberley coast near the site of the controversial James Price Point gas hub.

Murdoch University dolphin researcher Simon Allen said photographs and biopsy samples from the miniature dolphins, the adults of which appear to measure just 1.5m, had confirmed the significance of the find.

A Woodside Petroleum spokesman said the Browse joint venture had spent more than $80 million to undertake environmental studies, including comprehensive studies of whales and other marine life.

"We are focused on designing our facilities and preparing for construction and operational activities that consider and manage the full range of environmental impacts," the spokesman said.

But Mr Allen said many dolphins had simply been listed as "unidentified" in Woodside's environmental assessment, and that no distinction was made between the normal spinner dolphin and this miniature dolphin.

More data is required to determine whether the miniature dolphin is related to the spinner dolphin, which measures about 2m and has been identified in the area, or the dwarf spinner dolphin, which is known to inhabit the Gulf of Thailand. Two tissue samples from the miniature dolphin have been analysed at a laboratory in Zurich and the test results confirmed the dolphin was a new discovery for the area.

Mr Allen and his colleagues are collecting more samples for further testing. He said it was possible the dolphin would be found to be a new species.

Despite dolphins being some of the most charismatic and popular animals on the planet, Mr Allen said very little was known of the different species across northern Australia. He added that the find reinforced how little was known about life in our 

Gas Battle Heats Up In Australia

Spyghana.com

Few issues have focused the environmental movement in Australia as the fight to protect the Kimberley wilderness. The Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry has seen a number of colossal projects commence in recent years, however few have attracted controversy like the Browse Basin project. This project involves the construction of a major LNG hub at James Price Point on Western Australia’s Kimberley coast. Opponents of the project claim that this hub will cause significant environmental damage to a fragile ecosystem, while the Western Australian State Government and the Australian Federal Government claim that Browse will deliver jobs, economic stimulus for Indigenous communities and a needed boost to the Australian economy.

As reported by Raina Spooner of WA Today, corporate risk expert Katherine Teh-White has stated that “Browse has become a national scandal.” Teh-White criticizes Woodside, who failed to work with the local community and develop a “social license to operate”. Instead, the local communities have steadfastly opposed the development, creating numerous delays which have thrown the future of the project into considerable doubt.

LNG Growth Gathering Momentum

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) state that by 2016, worldwide trade in LNG will have reached 230 million tons. Australian LNG production is set to increase markedly, with developments such as the AUD$43 Gorgon project, the AUD$34 billion Ichthys project and the similarly massive Pluto LNG project set to commence gas production in coming years.

Worldwide, LNG production is undertaking a significant period of expansion, with LNG viewed as a less polluting fossil fuel than brown coal or petroleum. ExxonMobil have predicated a four fold increase in the market for LNG by 2030; and such forecasts have led major US companies to increase their market share. Exxon Mobil have rapidly increased production since 2006, with chief executive Rex Tillerson stating that Qatar and the Gorgon and Jansz projects will contribute significantly to this growth. Similarly, ConocoPhillips have raised production in recent years, most notably through operations based in Qatar and Australia.

However, projects across the globe have drawn similar criticism to the Browse Basin development. A proposed LNG terminal for Long Island Sound wasquashed in 2009, when the US Department of Commerce opposed the plans for a massive terminal, which had been devised by a consortium of Shell Oil and TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. Furthermore, in 2007 Chevron scuttled plans for a US$650 million LNG terminal, which had been planned for Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. The project was abandoned, largely due to pressure from Mexican environmentalists, who claimed that the project would impact upon local wildlife populations.

Australian LNG Industry

The growth of the Australian LNG industry is being supported heartily by two primary players, Australian Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett.

Demonstrating this support, Minister Ferguson spoke volumes of the industry at the Oriental Mining Club in Beijing on November 4 2011, stating “the potential for (Australian) LNG exports is enormous.” As reported by Gas Today, Premier Barnett reaffirmed the opportunities presented by Australia’s burgeoning LNG industry, saying that “Western Australia’s proximity to Asian markets combined with the state’s largely undeveloped natural gas resources, places it in an ideal position to meet growing demand.” Barnett continued, clearly demonstrating his support for the industry stating that “The government is actively supporting the sector’s expansion by working to secure land and infrastructure for industry development.”

A report released by the International Energy Agency predicted that Australia will be the world’s leading producer and exporter of LNG by 2020. As reported in The Australian on July 7^th 2011 , upon releasing the report, IEA Chief Economist Faith Birol stated that “We think Australia will play a crucial role in the golden age of gas”. The expansion of the Australian LNG industry is being driven by healthy demand, which is coming from nearby markets in the Asia-Pacific region. A spokesperson from the Office of Premier Barnett stated that for Asian countries, Western Australia provides a “reliable and secure energy source, to support economic growth and improved living standards.”

This demand is borne out in a number of substantial supply contracts. In 2002, the federal government, led by Prime Minister John Howard, signed a 25-year deal with China whereby 3 million tons of LNG would be supplied to China each year by Australian operations. Furthermore, in 2007, Woodside struck a deal with Chinese company PetroChina, whereby $AUD45 billion in LNG would be supplied from the Browse Basin project. Recently, the South Korean Government approved deals with Total and Royal Dutch Shell (at a total value of $US84 billion), whereby the companies would supply the country with LNG over a 20 year period, with the bulk of supply coming from Australia.

The Browse Basin LNG Project

The Browse Basin project is a $US30 billion enterprise, managed by a joint venture between Woodside, BHP Billiton, BP, Chevron and Shell.

As stated on the website of Woodside, the Australian company operating the project, “The Browse LNG development concept is to commercialize the Browse Joint Venture’s three gas and condensate fields, Brecknock, Calliance and Torosa, 400km off the Kimberley Coast.” The project description continues, describing that “Gas and liquids from these fields will be brought to an onshore LNG plant at the Western Australian Government’s Browse LNG precinct, 60 km north of Broome.” A spokesperson from the Office of Premier Barnett has described the benefits of the increased LNG production in Western Australia as including the creation of “thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of long term jobs, many of these located in regional towns.”

According to Woodside, the James Price Point location choice was “unanimously” decided upon by project partners. However this statement contradicts a cable released by Wikileaks showed that the Federal Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson forced the companies involved in the development into accepting James Price Point as the location for the LNG hub. This cable, dated December 11 2009, followed a decision from Ferguson, which meant that to ensure retention of project licenses, project partners were required to develop and submit a plan for producing LNG within 120 days, or walk away from the project. The cable demonstrates anger from the companies over this act, with Chevron’s Mike Edmonson stating that Ferguson’s “decisions are unprecedented and concerning”.

Environmental opposition

As reported by Natalie Muller, writing for Australian Geographic, there is passionate community opposition to the Browse Basin project. Speaking at a community meeting in Redfern, an inner city suburb of Sydney, Neil Mackenzie, spoke of the Kimberley , stating that “It is almost the last outback wilderness area in the world. What we have there is very precious.” The claims that the project would undermine the environmental integrity of the area are rejected by the Office of Premier Barnett, with a spokesperson stating that “Western Australia’s and Australia’s environmental approvals processes and impact management requirements are transparent, rigorous and comprehensive.”

Nevertheless, environmentalists are outraged at the location of the downstream processing facilities at James Price Point. Mark Jones, from the environmental group ‘Save The Kimberley’ provides a description of James Price Point, which he says consists of “red cliffs which meet the white sand and then the azure blue of the Indian Ocean . It is lined with sand dunes which act as bladders. Behind the dunes are ancient vine thickets”.

Jones states that the primary concerns surrounding the expansion of LNG include the “immediate effects, such as 50 square kilometers of marine dead zones, huge dredging tracts, loss of endangered species, destruction of dinosaur track ways and migration routes for marine species such as dolphins, whales and dugongs”. Premier Barnett has dismissed such concerns, however recent study led by Rosalind Rolland of the New England Aquarium, has found that shipping noise can have a significant effect on the viability of coastal dwelling whales. Co-author of a recent study conducted by the CSRIO, Dr Tara Martin, refers to the importance of the Kimberley region, saying that “We’re in the midst of an extinction event in Australia and the north has been the last stronghold for many native species of wildlife.” However, the fragility of the Kimberley region is underscored by the report, which states that 45 species native to the area will become extinct without a significant injection of funds to the area from state and federal governments.

There is considerable concern expressed by opponents of the project about Barnett’s apparent intention to transform the area into an industrial estate. Kevin Blatchford, also of the environment group Save the Kimberley, argues that “the reason why this site is being pushed is from political persuasion to power further development of the Kimberley area and open the area up for industry.” Peter Robertson, Western Australian state coordinator of Australian environmental organization ‘The Wilderness Society’ (TWS) considers the possibility of further developments in the area, such as alumina smelters and bauxite refineries, which could result in the James Price Point location being transformed into an industrial estate in the future. Despite this concern, Robertson is confident the project will not proceed at James Price Point. “(TWS) are quite certain that it’s not going to go ahead anyway. It hasn’t got any environmental approvals from state or federal governments.”

Protest Action

There has been significant conflict between those opposing the development and local police. Protestors opposing the development have been camped at blockades since mid 2011, with tents, showers, toilets, kitchen and vegetable garden created to support the action. The blockading actions have endured, despite police action which removed protestors from blockading the road to James Price Point in July 2011, which led to 25 arrests. An ABC report described the atmosphere created by the incident was “more like a war zone than a sunny Kimberley day.” More arrests have since followed, with tensions between police and protestors remaining high.

The tensions have undoubtedly been exacerbated by project operators Woodside. As mentioned by Jones, “Woodside contracted KBR. They then contracted a company called Hostile Environs Services. These people are ex-army who basically get around and film everything and all that information feeds into their intelligence”. The effect on the town has been pronounced, with protestors claiming that they have been victims of harassment and intimidation at the hands of Hostile Environs Services.

Journalist Antony Lowenstein recently visited the remote location, reporting “signs of collusion between the West Australian police and private security forces against Indigenous owners and protestors opposed to the development.” Furthermore, Lowenstein reported that he viewed “large amounts of footage detailing HES interrupting scientists gathering evidence of dinosaur tracks of the area”.

Native Title Agreement

For the project development to have commenced at James Price Point, the Western Australian Government compulsorily acquired the land for the project site. To enable the government to do this, a Native Title agreement had to be reached between the traditional owners of the land. This agreement was reached on June 30 2011, between the Goolarabooloo Jabirr Jabirr Native Title claim group, Woodside and the Western Australian State Government.

Federal Senator Rachel Siewart contends that Indigenous traditional owners of the land were pressured into the initial agreement with the Western Australian Government. Senator Siewart believes that state and federal governments “very definitely put pressure on local traditional owners to accept James Price Point as the site for this gas hub.” The Native Title agreement has divided traditional owners; with the compulsory land acquisition from the Western Australian government challenged in court by the Jabbir Jabbir people, who achieved a ruling in their favor on December 6 2011.

Retired Federal Court judge Murray Wilcox states that the ruling further jeopardizes the $1.5 billion Native Title agreement, forged between traditional owners of the land and the Western Australian state government. According to Wilcox, the process will have to be restarted due to the decision of the Supreme Court, with a new agreement to be forged. However, Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett remains defiant. “We reached an agreement under the Native Title Act with the Aboriginal owners of that land and that was by consent and that agreement still stands.”

Woodside Selling 15 per cent stake

On May 1^st 2012, it was announced that Woodside had sold 15 per cent of its 46 per cent share in the Browse venture, reducing ownership of the venture to 31.3 per cent. The 15 per cent stake, valued at AUD $2 billion, was purchased by Japan Australia LNG, whose parent companies are Japanese trading houses, Mitsui and Co. and Mitsubishi Corporation. There is conjecture as to how this deal will effect the proposed location of the LNG hub at James Price Point. “It is unclear what the implications will be for the development,” states Robertson. However, Robertson refers to the opposition expressed by joint venture partners to the James Price Point location, stating that it is “more likely that the gas will be pumped to Karratha (industrial town, 830km south west of Broome).” Adding to the pressures experienced by Woodside, are mounting project costs, which the Business Spectatorreported have risen from $US30 billion to $US40 billion.

Conclusion

Through their development of the Browse Basin project, Woodside have enjoyed unequivocal support from the Western Australian and Australian governments. However, the company failed to account for any public backlash to their plans. Rather than engaging with people who were uncertain about, or opposed to, the development, the company hired a firm to gather intelligence on the community. As a result of such poor public consultation, Woodside lost public trust and lost credibility, which has now placed the future of the Browse Basin project in doubt.