Mark
The West Kimberley coast is deserving of World Heritage listing for its unique and pristine nature. Imagine a coastline that appears as the escarpments of the Blue Mountains sunken in tropical seas. Imagine an area with the diversity of Bradshaw art, coral reefs such as Montgomery Reef, turtles, crocodiles, the Buccaneer Archipelago and humpback whale nurseries. Imagine the loss for future generations.
AMID the euphoric predictions of a new era in Australia’s resource led wealth lies the potential for further destruction of Australia’s wilderness. Placing aside the equity of resource sharing between Australia and East Timor in the North West Shelf gas fields, there are little known development proposals that will potentially place at risk the wilderness qualities of large sections of Australia’s coastline.
The recently announced $25 billion gas contract with China has an associated $1.5 billion infrastructure development. This involves a gas pipeline to an onshore liquification processing plant. It is my opinion that the location of this plant has not been met with sufficient media interest to date.
Many locals of the West Kimberley coast prefer the north east point of King Sound near Derby. One would believe national politicians would support the enormous potential for regional employment and small business opportunities that would arise from such a location. The Aboriginal community should similarly support such a location to encourage skill and employment development rather than the usual resource company importation of labour and payment of royalties.
The West Kimberley coast is deserving of World Heritage listing for its unique and pristine nature. Imagine a coastline that appears as the escarpments of the Blue Mountains sunken in tropical seas. Imagine an area with the diversity of Bradshaw art, coral reefs such as Montgomery Reef, turtles, crocodiles, the Buccaneer Archipelago and humpback whale nurseries. Imagine the loss for future generations.
The Australian public may well ask, “Why would Woodside choose the appropriately named ‘Deception Bay’ over a town such as Derby with an established infrastructure?” There is the suggestion there are bauxite deposits in this vicinity. Bauxite requires power to process aluminium and port facilities for export. This may well have long-term implications for Tasmania and Gladstone in Queensland. Such resource wealth should allow less greedy economic development.
Perhaps the Wilderness Society or an investigative journalist could advance the full story beyond the apparent wishes of the Business Council of Australia and our political representatives.
