Latest news with #Karratha
ABC News
12-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Murray Watt flags Woodside's North West Shelf project extension response could be delayed
A final decision on the future of Woodside's major gas plant could be delayed, with the federal environment minister revealing the mining giant has more time to respond to his provisional approval of its North West Shelf extension. Murray Watt last month threw his support behind Woodside continuing to operate its onshore gas processing plant in Western Australia's north for the next four decades. Woodside is considering the "strict" conditions attached to his approval, aimed at protecting ancient Aboriginal rock art in the Murujuga National Park on the Burrup Peninsula. Mr Watt said while the 10-day period to do so expires tomorrow, he wasn't certain that would happen. "We haven't received a final response from Woodside at this point," he told ABC radio. "When I handed down my proposed decision a couple of weeks ago, there was a 10-day comment period for Woodside to respond to. "That 10- day period expires [tomorrow], but I should say it's not uncommon for proponents in this situation to take a bit longer in coming back on those comments. "I can't predict exactly when it will be that Woodside will provide those comments once I receive them, consider them and make a decision on whether or not to approve the project." The North West Shelf is Australia's largest oil and gas precinct, located off the north-west coast of WA, near the regional city of Karratha. Woodside has several offshore platforms and undersea pipelines to enable it to extract gas, which is then processed at the onshore gas plant. In 2018, Woodside applied for a permit to extend the life of that plant beyond 2030, which triggered a long and controversial process which ultimately saw the proposal approved by the state, and most recently, federal governments. The North West Shelf extension sets the company up to expand its operations beyond the existing gas fields. The 2070 extension is seen as a critical step in extracting gas from the untapped Browse fields, north of Broome, without building new infrastructure to process it. Browse is said to have reserves large enough to meet Australia's entire domestic demand for almost 20 years. However, Woodside's application to drill there has yet to be approved, and after nearly seven years, is still going through environmental assessment. The North West Shelf extension was touted as a boon to WA industry, promising job security to thousands. But the move has left green groups furious, with critics warning opposition to Browse — which is still before the Environmental Protection Authority — will be fierce. Concerns are wide ranging, and include questions about what the project's emissions will mean for WA's climate targets. There's also alarm about the proximity of the Browse gas fields to the Scott Reef, which is home to endangered whales, turtles and corals. Traditional Owners have also threatened to take legal action against the life extension of the North West Shelf and Browse, concerned about the impact on priceless ancient rock art near the Karratha Gas Plant. Proponents maintain gas is a critical transition fuel in the switch to renewables, and an important export to countries moving away from coal.
ABC News
08-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
WA emissions have risen but premier insists it's necessary in global fight against climate change
Western Australia's gas is a golden ticket, a sought-after transition fuel helping to displace coal in Asia and lower global emissions. At least that's the story WA Premier Roger Cook has been selling. Amid public backlash to the federal government's decision to approve a 40-year extension to Woodside's North West Shelf Karratha gas project, something the WA Government green lit in December, the premier is sticking to his talking points. The project's extension is good for the economy, it's good for jobs, it's good for regional WA — and it's good for the energy transition, he says. His good friend, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, was on the same page last week, praising the North West Shelf extension before Tuesday's federal cabinet meeting in Perth. "The people I've met in Karratha support jobs and support economic activity… I went to Karratha during the election campaign," Mr Albanese said. "I understand that this great state isn't just about Perth, it's about jobs." Environment advocates disagree. They're concerned about what the project's emissions will mean for the world, and for WA's climate targets – a concern dismissed by supporters. "I obviously speak to the gas companies and I speak to their customers and their customers have said very clearly to me, for instance Japan… we want to get from 39 per cent profile for coal fire power in our grid down to 19 per cent," Mr Cook said last Tuesday. "The only way we can do that is by utilising gas." The WA Greens say the North West Shelf puts the state on the path to becoming Australia's "climate change capital," especially given new data shows WA's greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 were going in the wrong direction. Figures from the Federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water found WA's emissions are now almost 17 per cent above 2005 levels and rising, ahead of other mining states like Queensland. It means the state is bucking the national trend, with Australia's overall emissions falling 27 per cent over the same period. "The Cook Labor government knows these numbers and they just don't care," new Greens MLC Sophie McNeill said at a rally last Wednesday. But WA is planning to bring its emissions down, right? Maybe – but it might not be any time soon. "What's more important is that we bring down global emissions," Mr Cook said last Thursday. Part of that role, the Premier says, is to provide gas to countries moving away from coal but who aren't replacing it directly with renewables. It's part of the reason why he has pulled back on previous plans to legislate state climate targets, saying it could 'shackle' the state from helping the world. "If you are introducing green iron into Western Australia, if you're realising our full potential with regard to the global manufacturing battery supply chain, if we're securing renewable energy and exporting it in the forms of ammonia, hydrogen and other forms of stored energy, potentially Western Australia's emissions will increase," Mr Cook said this week. There are plenty who doubt that position. A report last year by the US Department of Energy — looking at the impacts of increasing America's gas exports — found it could allow for rising demand to be met while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from coal and oil. But it also found that upping supply could create an 'increased consumption of global services', which would in turn increase emissions. A 2019 CSIRO report, commissioned by Woodside and frequently cited by climate advocates, found gas would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Asia if a high price on carbon was imposed. 'Gas can assist [greenhouse gas emission] mitigation during the period when carbon prices or equivalent signals are strong enough to force high renewable electricity generation shares,' it found. 'Until the carbon price reaches that level their impact on emissions reduction is either negative or neutral.' Energy Finance Analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, Kevin Morrison, also doubts the WA government's views. He said while gas would play a role in the energy transition, 'there's no sign of it replacing coal', and that it is still emissions-intensive when being exported, as much of WA's gas is. 'It has got to be frozen, then it's a ship, it burns a lot of fuel as it's going over thousands of kilometres, and then it's reheated at the other end,' he said. 'All that together really adds up to a fair bit of emissions.' Mr Morrison was particularly doubtful of Cook's claims Japan needed WA's gas to decarbonise, pointing to IEEFA research that Japan onsold much of the gas it purchased from Australia. Tensions over the role WA has to play in decarbonising the world are not going away anytime soon. Demonstrations have continued for the second week as climate activists protest the North West Shelf extension and its impact on rising emissions. Conservation Council WA community organiser Victoria Pavy helped organise the snap national day of action event in Perth last Wednesday. "We know that from 2026 onwards there's a projected global gas glut, so it's going to be harder and harder for Australia to actually sell our gas and there's a lot more supply than demand," she said. Australian Youth Climate Coalition WA organiser Jordan Rowand agrees. "[In] every other state, their emissions have gone down since 2005, so the work that we have to do in Western Australia is a lot… we have some big fights ahead of us," they said. History will judge whether the WA government is chasing a real golden ticket or something closer to fool's gold.
ABC News
07-06-2025
- General
- ABC News
Western Australia's remote Islamic communities gather for Eid al-Adha
"Eid Mubarak" may seem a bit different in Western Australia's north-west, where community members gather in unconventional ways to mark one of the most important dates on the Islamic calendar. In Karratha and Carnarvon, worshippers, including some donned in high-visibility work uniforms, have no fixed place of prayer for Eid al-Adha. It is a far cry from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a majority-Muslim external territory, where the Athan or Islamic call to prayer blends with the sound of drums and violins to ring in the holy festival. On Saturday, belated Eid celebrations were held at a hired council venue in Karratha, about 1,500 kilometres north of Perth. Karratha Muslim Community Association president Imraan Koalia said not having a permanent place of prayer had been a real "sticking point" for the community. "We are looking for a dedicated space that we could call our home," he said. Mr Koalia described the Muslim community in Karratha as small but tight-knit, with people from all walks of life and corners of the globe. But he said the transience of the town could make it difficult to cater for all nationalities and cultures. "It's very diverse, very multicultural, very traditional as well. We're only a small community," he said. About 150 people came together for Eid festivities, which involved prayers, sharing gifts and treats, visiting families, jumping castles and face painting at the Tambrey football oval. Mr Koalia described the dissonance of celebrating and feasting as a community while people in Gaza remained under threat and could not enjoy the same freedoms. "It's a time for us when we come together as a Muslim community to remember Muslims all around the world, and especially those Muslims in Palestine and in Gaza," he said. The Carnarvon Muslim community is made up of 50 people. Most have travelled from Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan to work in the farming town. Like Karratha, there is no fixed space for worship. In the past, the civic centre has been rented to host Eid prayers. But this holiday, no communal prayer was held. It is a Sunnah for Muslims, which means it is highly recommended and should be practised, but is not strictly obligatory. Shzahaer Iezayed Abdullah bin Mahalan, who goes by Lang, moved to Carnarvon from Malaysia eight years ago. He spent his Eid working at the kebab shop. "I just talked to my family in Malaysia … I really miss them when Eid comes. But the only the thing I can do is video call them," he said. Lang said most people were too busy to organise the prayer. "They're working in the plantation, some in the petrol station, everywhere they're working. So we don't have any time," he said. But that did not entirely squash the festivities. "Sunday … we can make Eid party for us. We're just discussing … like who's doing cooking, who's doing the preparation?" Using a WhatsApp group, the community planned gatherings and supported each other. More than 2,300km north-west of Carnarvon, the call to prayer could be heard along tropical beaches and blue lagoons as Eid al-Adha kicked off in Australia's most remote Muslim community. Many residents of the Indian Ocean territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands observe the festival, although their traditions have developed in isolation from the mainland. Haji Adam Anthony, the islands' senior imam, said the special variety of Islam practised by the Cocos Malay merged distinct cultures from across the world. "The Clunies-Ross brought the peoples from different places to Cocos." The islands were discovered by the East India Company's Captain William Keeling in the early 1600s. But it was not until the 19th century that trader John Clunies-Ross began populating them with indentured workers from British Malaya, China, India and other places. Haji Adam said Islam took strong root among these settlers, who congregated on Home Island when the Clunies-Ross fiefdom passed into Australian control. Cultural markers from homelands as distant and diverse as Indonesia to Scotland still feature in contemporary ceremonies. Worshippers marked Eid with traditional dancing, tamarind drum playing and performances on the Cocos biola, a fiddle which the Clunies-Ross family is often credited for bringing to the territory. Haji Adam explained the harmony between disparate traditions and Islam made the Cocos (Keeling) Islands unique. "[Without] using drum or violins and so forth … we lost our culture and tradition," he said. "The elder people still like to keep this."
ABC News
04-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Is the government ignoring evidence of rock art degradation at Murujuga? And Daniel Browning hangs up the headphones
The Federal Government has given a proposed approval for an expansion of Woodside's North West Shelf gas project near Karratha in Western Australia. But Professor Benjamin Smith — an expert in world rock art — claims that the rock art at Murujuga, which is up to fifty thousand years old, is being degraded by recent industry and that the State Government is ignoring the evidence. The Ramsay Art Prize is the biggest award for a young artist in Australia, with a prize of $100,000 and national recognition. You'll meet the winner of this year's prize, Jack Ball, and find out how the Australian Queer Archives in Melbourne inspired their exhibition, Heavy Grit. And Daniel Browning reflects on his time in arts journalism as he leaves the ABC after 31 years. Our track of the week is Signs by Ólafur Arnalds & Talos
The Guardian
02-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Australia to lobby Unesco over barring of ancient rock site from world heritage list due to Woodside emissions
The Albanese government will launch a lobbying campaign in a bid to reverse a Unesco recommendation that an ancient rock art site in Western Australia can't go on the world heritage list until damaging industrial emissions linked to a controversial Woodside gas development are stopped. Government officials were aiming to meet Unesco next week after its advisers said the nomination of the Murujuga Cultural Landscape in north-west WA – home to more than a million petroglyphs, some almost 50,000 years old – should be referred back to Australia until nearby 'degrading acidic emissions' were halted. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) advised Unesco the main requirements for world heritage nomination had been met, but pollution from nearby industry 'makes the integrity and the authenticity of key attributes of the nominated property highly vulnerable'. The main source of emissions, the ICOMOS report said, was Woodside's Karratha gas plant, which last week was conditionally awarded a 40-year extension by the environment minister, Murray Watt, to operate until 2070. The Unesco recommendation is due to go before the 21-country world heritage committee at its next meeting on 6 July in Paris. A government spokesperson told the Guardian it was now 'actively engaged in the process' and would make 'strong representations at every opportunity' to have Murujuga listed as a world heritage site at the Paris meeting. Sources told the Guardian that Australian government department officials were also aiming to meet Unesco officials over the nomination during next week's UN oceans conference in Nice. Last week, Watt said he was disappointed Unesco had been influenced by 'factual inaccuracies' but did not provide further detail on what those inaccuracies were. Most of the pieces of rock art were created by hitting the rocks with harder rocks to remove a top layer, revealing lighter colours beneath – a technique known as pecking. Scientists expressed concern that emissions of nitrous oxide and sulphur oxide were working to slowly dissolve the top layers of the petroglyph rocks. A summary of a state government-commissioned monitoring report on the state of pollution and the petroglyphs, released last month, claimed observed damage to some of the rocks was likely related to a power plant that ran in the 1970s and 1980s. But leading rock art expert Prof Benjamin Smith, of the University of Western Australia, said the body of the 800-page report was clear that current industrial emissions were also damaging the petroglyphs. He said: 'If [the federal government] is trying to say the damage was done in the 70s and 80s, then they're on a hiding to nothing. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email 'I don't think emissions are damaging the rock art, I know they are.' He said the official monitoring report showed current emissions at the site were likely between four and five times higher than during the 1970s and 80s. Smith said: 'The 800-page report makes it clear they are being damaged in the areas closest to industry. If [Australia] tries to blame that power plant in the 1970s, then the implication is that that emissions are damaging it five times more now.' The ABC has reported a scientist leading the monitoring report has privately complained the report was altered to remove a line on a graph that would have shown 'five of the monitoring sites were experiencing pollutant levels above the interim guideline'. The ICOMOS evaluation report said it had received information from a 'third party' drawing its attention to the extension of Woodside's Karratha gas plant to 2070. That information, the Guardian can reveal, was a detailed letter from the Australian Conservation Foundation, which pointed to several studies raising concerns about emissions and the rock art. The Guardian has revealed the Australian government has previously carried out a long and sustained lobbying campaign to keep the Great Barrier Reef off the world heritage list of sites in danger. Gavan Macfadzean, climate and energy program manager at ACF, said he expected the Australian government would now be lobbying Unesco and the world heritage committee up to the meeting. 'Our role is to make sure that when sites are nominated [for world heritage status], we're reassured that the values for which it's being evaluated are protected,' he said. 'We support the listing, but we have to make sure that it's not a greenwashing exercise. We want to see the nomination happen in a way that protects the values. He said emissions of nitrous oxide and sulfur oxide from local industry – including from Woodside's gas processing facility – needed to be 'fully addressed'. In a statement, the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC), which has worked with government to nominate the site, said it was 'deeply disappointed' by the ICOMOS recommendation. The chair of MAC, Peter Hicks, said the ICOMOS report had made clear the site should be on the world heritage list. He said: 'The evaluation report provides the pathway to finalising world heritage listing and while the referral adds another small step to our journey, it is a positive outcome and not a rejection. 'While we are disappointed, we are determined to finish our journey and see the Murujuga Cultural Landscape included on the world heritage list as soon as possible.' A spokesperson for Woodside said the final decision on the nomination would rest with the world heritage committee. They said: 'Woodside will continue to support the leadership of traditional custodians, including the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC), which holds cultural authority, and work with the commonwealth and state governments as they prepare their responses to the [ICOMOS] recommendation.' The statement said the findings of the monitoring report 'show that emissions are below risk thresholds, and the data does not support the theory that acid rain damages the petroglyphs.' They said: 'Woodside has taken proactive steps over many years – including emissions reductions, data sharing and ongoing support for [the monitoring report] – to ensure we manage our impacts responsibly. 'We believe the world heritage nomination should proceed on the strength of the evidence and stand as proof that cultural heritage and industry can responsibly coexist when collaboration, transparency, and rigorous scientific monitoring are in place.'
