Sydney forum to discuss Saving the Kimberley campaign

The campaign to protect Western Australia's Kimberley region from gas extraction will be the topic of an April 19 meeting in Sydney.

WA Greens Senator Rachel Siewert, The Wilderness Society national director Lyndon Schneiders and Beyond Zero Emissions' Geoff Cameron will address the public forum, Saving the Kimberley: Our Land or Gasland?

Australia is in a race for gas at James Price Point, 60 kilometres north of Broome. The federal and WA governments are urging resource giant Woodside to build a $45 billion liquid natural gas (LNG) processing plant that will employ 6000 workers over six years.

This would commit Australia to gas power for many decades even though recent studies show gas is no cleaner than coal. Further, Woodside will need an airport, port, roads and pipelines to support a gas plant, industrialising large parts of pristine wilderness.

This industrialisation is inherently unsustainable and strongly opposed by many of the 30 Aboriginal groups in the region. For 28,000 years in the Dampier Peninsula and 40,000 years or more in the Kimberley, these traditional owners have been caretakers for the country.

Colin Barnett’s WA Liberal government has re-advertised its notice of intent to compulsorily acquire 3500 hectares of land at James Price Point. The original notices were ruled invalid by the WA Supreme Court.

Mining companies are “buying” the right to mine on Native Title lands with large offers to Aboriginal Land Councils of money for health and education. When did these stop being a basic citizenship right for every Australian?

Anne Poelina is a Yimardoowarra, Nyikina woman from the Lower Fitzroy River in the Kimberley who was elected to the Broome Shire Council in 2010. She commissioned an independent study into the potential impact of mining from the University of Western Australia and says the promise of employment opportunities is misleading.

“There are more Indigenous jobs in the culture and conservation green collar industries such as landcare, ranger and tourism,” she said. “These jobs are more sustainable and produce greater social and cultural benefits than mining.”

[Saving the Kimberley: Our Land or Gasland? will take place on April 19 at 7pm at the Mechanics School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney. Entry $10/5.]