This week Nannas have learnt from various sources about Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project in Western Australia. Other Nannas have been travelling, and their full reports will be available soon.
Woodside’s North West Shelf Gas Project
If you enlarge this map and scroll south you will see Project CERES where Australia’s largest ammonia-urea plant is being built to transform gas into urea, a fertiliser. You will also see Yarra Pilbara, Yarra Pilbara Nitrates, Yara/Orica Technical Ammonium Nitrate. Yarra has a plant to create ammonia for fertilisers and another to make explosive products for the mining industry. To the north of Karratha gas plant is Murujuga National Park.
Nannas have been learning about Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project in Western Australia from various sources this week. The time set for Woodside to consider and comment on the government’s provisional approval conditions on cultural heritage and air quality has been extended for an unspecified time.
The following are links to what the Nannas have been watching, reading and listening to in order to understand the impacts of this extension on the Murujuga rock art, Scott Reef and the climate.
The Australia Institute documentary and podcast
Walkley Award-winning journalists, Stephen Long and Elinor Johnston-Leek were recently at Murujuga to make a documentary – The Fight to Save Murujuga. The Murujuga Rock Art is a unique 40,000-year-old collection of rock engravings on the Dampier Archipelago in the Pilbara region of WA.
In the following podcast Stephen and Elinor discuss the Federal Government’s decision to sign a provisional extension to Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project and the impact that it will have on the irreplaceable Murujuga rock art. (Follow the Money Podcast)
ABC News Daily podcast – Woodside’s massive gas extension explained.
An easy-to-understand summary of the project, with a clip from Albo during the Howard era talking about the importance of a climate trigger in our environmental laws to stop gas expansions.
ABC News Article – Controversial Scientific Report
Professor Ben Mullins, a lead scientist behind a major report monitoring the impact of pollution on the ancient rock art of Murujuga, says industry and the petroglyphs can co-exist, and rejected accusations of a gag on researchers.
University of Western Australia Professor of Archaeology, Benjamin Smith, accused the state government of misrepresenting the full report in the executive summary, the summary of the report, he described as “propaganda”.
Emeritus Professor Adrian Baddeley, complained about “unacceptable interference” in the summary report, calling it “factually incorrect”. (ABC News)
Woodside in Court
The Federal Court has ruled that a legal challenge by Raelene Cooper, a Mardudhunera woman and founder of the organisation Save Our Songlines, will be heard during the week of 14 July. The application was filed in 2022 but has not yet been decided. Cooper is seeking to compel Environment Minister, Murray Watt, to make a decision on a Section 10 application under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act, owing to risks to the Murujuga rock art. (Renew Economy)
Doctors for the Environment test case on Woodside’s Scarborough Gas Project off the northwest coast of Western Australia to proceed after court grants crucial costs order. (Doctors for the Environment media release)
WA Independent News
Boiling Cold provides independent news and insight into energy, industry and climate in Western Australia.
New report on mismanaged NSW inland rivers
The Nature Conservation Council of NSW launched a report: The Lifeblood of Inland NSW: The Socio-Economic and Cultural Importance of Healthy Rivers. The report reveals the deep cultural, social and economic toll of poor water management in the Murray-Darling Basin.
Communities along the Darling / Baaka and its tributaries are struggling, because the river systems are pushing ecosystems to collapse and driving people from the land.
Key recommendations include:
- fully implementing the NSW Connectivity Expert Panel’s recommendations to restore environmental flows,
- recognising and enshrining Indigenous water rights and cultural flows,
- investing in a just regional transition, including regenerative land management and community resilience.
Three Little Nannas
Along with Nanna Anne, the three little Nannas are volunteering with Bush Heritage at Buckrabanyule Conservation Reserve to kill the wheel cactus. More news from them soon.
Illawarra Nannas meet Planning Minister
Illawarra Knitting Nannas Against Gas met with NSW Planning Minister, Paul Scully, on 6 June.
They discussed the following:
- the large number of renewable energy projects approved over the last two years,
- the expansion plan for Moolarben Coal currently being assessed,
- methane leaking from decommissioned mine shafts,
- the extensions to Mount Arthur mine,
- green gravity – using disused underground mines to store energy,
- rule changes for batteries,
- no changes to laws regarding gas in new builds – The Minister’s view is that most future developments won’t have gas.
- electrification – thinner film solar panels and smaller heat pump hot water systems are being developed.
Waste to energy incinerators
The threat of incinerators in regional areas is of immense concern to rural residents. Nannas continue to call for this toxic process to be banned everywhere – it’s not safe in Sydney and it’s not safe in regional communities.
Nannas support:
- zero-waste legislation which requires industry to ’take back’ and pay for their waste,
- the addition of a tracked and meaningful deposit/refund system for the products hardest to recycle,
- a meaningful increase in payments for container deposits,
- a rapid move towards long-life and refillable containers.
Watch
Is generating electricity by burning waste a good idea? (ABC 7.30 Report)
United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3)
The United Nations Ocean Conference was held in Nice, France from 9 to 13 June. The newly appointed Environment Minister, Murray Watt, was representing Australia at the Conference.
Plastic Pollution
“In Australia, we’re taking action on plastic pollution through packaging regulatory reform and by increasing our plastic recycling capacity in Australia, including solutions for plastics that are hard to recycle, like soft plastics”, said Senator Watt. (Media release)
Plastics campaigners warn Australia’s pledge at UN needs to be matched with ‘high ambition at home’. (The Guardian)
Ocean Protection Plan
Senator Watt used his moment on the global stage to outline Australia’s plans for bolstered ocean protections.
It includes declaring 30 per cent of Australian waters will be highly protected by 2030 and ratifying the nation’s commitment to the High Seas Biodiversity Treaty. There is no commitment to ban extractive industries, except in the 30 per cent of highly protected areas. (ABC Listen)
United Nations News report
The Ocean Conference culminated in a shared call to expand marine protection, curb pollution, regulate the high seas and unlock financing for vulnerable coastal and island nations.
One of the conference’s main objectives was to accelerate progress on the High Seas Treaty adopted in 2023 to safeguard marine life in international waters. Sixty ratifications are needed for it to enter into force. Over the past week, 19 countries ratified the accord, bringing the total number as of Friday, to 50.
This was considered a ‘significant victory’ under difficult circumstances. President Donald Trump has made a recent executive order advancing deep-sea mining and a senior US delegation was absent from the conference.
The conference closed with a wave of commitments. Some ambitious pledges were made, but Australia was not mentioned. (UN News)
Nannas are reading
Glaciers are melting, responsibility grows. The climate case – Saul v RWE. The Higher Regional Court of Hamm, Germany, made legal history. In the ruling on the civil case brought by Peruvian mountain guide, Saúl Luciano Lliuya, against German energy giant RWE, the judges confirmed that major emitters can be held liable under German civil law for the consequences of climate change. (The Climate Case)
Parts of Australia are suffering another devastating drought, but you wouldn’t know it in the cities (Van Badham – The Guardian)
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