{"id":119925,"date":"2025-09-05T04:20:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/119925\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T04:20:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:20:24","slug":"nt-government-exempts-us-military-fuel-tanks-built-unlawfully-on-darwin-harbour-from-certification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/119925\/","title":{"rendered":"NT government exempts US military fuel tanks built unlawfully on Darwin Harbour from certification"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Northern Territory government has exempted 11 massive US military fuel tanks built unlawfully on Darwin Harbour from needing occupancy certification.<\/p>\n

The announcement was made the same day the government was due to respond to ABC questions regarding an almost year-long secret plan to exempt the tanks.<\/p>\n

The questions were sparked by an email chain between the NT government and Australian Department of Defence \u2014 obtained by the ABC \u2014 detailing preparations to compile a departmental report for minister Josh Burgoyne to seek an exemption.<\/p>\n

Obtained through Freedom of Information, the emails mark the latest chapter in a months-long investigative series into the Darwin Harbour fuel facility.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The Project Caymus fuel tanks will be used by the US military, but are currently sitting empty. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

Dubbed Project Caymus, the $270 million fuel tank farm was announced in 2021, with works at the site beginning in January 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

American company Crowley won a tender from the US government<\/a> to build and manage the tanks, which sit on NT government land.<\/p>\n

The ABC has previously revealed the 11 tanks were constructed unlawfully without a building permit<\/a> and were not designed to withstand winds of more than 193.5 kilometres per hour.<\/a><\/p>\n

Water has also been leaking into the base of the tanks<\/a>, which are yet to hold fuel.<\/p>\n

On Thursday afternoon, the NT’s Minister for Lands, Planning and Environment, Josh Burgoyne, released a statement saying he had approved the tanks for operation, after they were signed off by an independent engineer hired by Crowley.<\/p>\n

“I made a declaration under the Building Act that occupancy certification is not required for the fuel facility,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The current legislation does not allow for a building permit to be issued retrospectively.”<\/p>\n

Occupancy certification is granted by a building certifier and shows that a structure has complied with all regulations.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Josh Burgoyne did not respond to a question from the ABC asking if he ordered the departmental report on the tanks.\u00a0 (ABC News: Peter Garnish)<\/p>\n

In the statement, Mr Burgoyne said Crowley had provided a “signed compliance statement from an independent structural engineer”.<\/p>\n

“Stating that the facility meets the National Construction Code and relevant Australian standards,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Crowley Australia has obtained full environmental approval and demonstrated that the bunds surrounding the tanks have the capacity to contain all of the fuel in the tanks.<\/p>\n

“The independent structural engineer has confirmed that the tanks are constructed to withstand winds equivalent to a category four cyclone under the Bureau of Meteorology’s cyclone categories.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Crowley is the owner-operator of the Project Caymus bulk fuel facility. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

Mr Burgoyne also said the NT Fire and Rescue Service and NT Environment Protection Authority had reviewed reports provided by Crowley.<\/p>\n

His statement was publicly released at 3:30pm on Thursday \u2014 right on the deadline the ABC had given the government to respond to detailed questions sent the previous day.<\/p>\n

‘Prepare a report for the minister’<\/p>\n

The NT government’s plan to exempt the tanks goes at least as far back as December 2024, according to the email chain obtained by the ABC.<\/p>\n

The correspondence includes an email sent by the acting deputy chief executive of the Department of Lands, Planning and Environment (DLPE), to the Australian Defence Department in December 2024.<\/p>\n

It states that the DLPE was planning to “prepare a report for \u2026 Minister [Burgoyne] to seek an exemption from building certification”.<\/p>\n

Unlawful build of US military fuel tanks not realised for almost two years<\/a><\/p>\n

The NT government was unaware for almost two years that 11 massive US military fuel tanks were being built unlawfully on Darwin Harbour.<\/p>\n

The email subsequently asks the Defence Department representative to help finalise the report.<\/p>\n

“Given your understanding of the issues, I would be grateful if you could peer review my report to the minister,” the email reads.<\/p>\n

“In terms of timing, I hope to have the report drafted in early January [2025], assuming that Crowley has addressed all outstanding issues.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Construction of the tanks began in 2022. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

Mr Burgoyne did not respond to questions asking if he ordered the report.<\/p>\n

The name of the acting deputy chief executive of the DLPE is redacted in the email.<\/p>\n

The DLPE did not respond to a question regarding who was in the role at the time or what “outstanding issues” Crowley needed to address.<\/p>\n

The FOI release also did not include the Defence Department’s reply to the email, although one page of correspondence is entirely redacted.<\/p>\n

Defence has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Northern Territory government has exempted 11 massive US military fuel tanks built unlawfully on Darwin Harbour from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,48322,35264,84771,84766,84767,84772,84762,84763,84765,66024,80061,84760,84764,84768,84769,84761,25278,44,1098,17188,84770,84758,84759],"class_list":["post-119925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-building-code","tag-clp-government","tag-construction-certification","tag-crowley","tag-crowley-fuel-tanks","tag-cyclone-proof","tag-darwin-fuel-tanks","tag-darwin-harbour","tag-darwin-harbour-fuel","tag-engineer","tag-freedom-of-information","tag-fuel-tank","tag-fuel-tanks","tag-josh-burgoyne","tag-joshua-burgoyne","tag-military-fuel-tanks","tag-natural-disaster","tag-news","tag-nt","tag-nt-government","tag-occupancy-certification","tag-project-caymus","tag-us-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}