Raelene Cooper with Murjuga rock art near the North West Shelf project. Picture: Save Our Songlines
Cultural and conservation groups have joined in condemnation of the WA Government’s 50-year extension of the North West Shelf project.
Mardudhunera woman Raelene Cooper, of Save Our Songlines, can’t believe the decision was given its impact on the land and Murjuga rock art.
“This is such a special place and it is really unbelievable to me that Woodside is allowed to destroy it,” she says.
“Murjuga is my country and it holds my songlines – the rock art is sacred to my people. This project is going to wreck all that with toxic emissions if the government let them.”
She wants Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to stop Woodside from proceeding with their plans.
The North West Shelf is a liquified natural gas plant based at Karatha. The joint venture project’s other partners include Chevron, Shell and BP, among others.
“My family’s stories are carved in the rocks at Murujuga but Woodside isn’t just threatening our cultural heritage – they’re threatening our living songlines and environment,” she says.
“Woodside is getting Browse gas to feed the Burrup Hub from under a pristine coral reef that endangered sea snakes, whales and turtles rely on for their habitat. Woodside’s Burrup Hub extension threatens all of that, as well as the rock art right here.”
Cooper is a former chairwoman of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and has applied to the federal government for a full cultural heritage assessment of the industrial impacts of Woodside’s Burrup Hub on the UNESCO World Heritage-nominated Murujuga rock art.
CONSERVATION COUNCIL
The Conservation Council of WA and Murujuga custodians also protested outside Woodside HQ in Perth this morning in response to the WA government’s shock decision to approve the extension of Australia’s most polluting gas plant – Woodside’s North West Shelf project –- until 2070.
The council says the Shelf will become the most polluting gas project in the Southern Hemisphere and threatens UNESCO World Heritage-nominated Murujuga rock art.
The council believes there is now a greater threat of the Kimberley opening up to fracking and possibly Scott Reef being destroyed for Woodside’s Browse gas proposal, which the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) already ruled against.
Anna Chapman, the Fossil Fuels Program Manager at the Conservation Council of WA, said: “This is a monumentally destructive decision by minister Reece Whitby and the WA government that seeks to lock in huge volumes of fossil fuel production until 2070.
“This is the first decision the WA government has made since changing its greenhouse gas emissions policy and means that Woodside’s Scope 1 emissions will not be subject to state emissions conditions.”
The conservation council is the state’s foremost non-profit, non-government conservation organisation and represents nearly 100 environmental organisations.
