{"id":539341,"date":"2026-03-14T05:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T05:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/539341\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T05:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T05:44:13","slug":"was-anti-fracking-fight-intensifies-the-saturday-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/539341\/","title":{"rendered":"WA\u2019s anti-fracking fight intensifies | The Saturday Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Texan oil mogul\u2019s plan to frack the Kimberley invokes \u201cthe end of my people, really\u201d, says Bardi-Kija-Nyul Nyul custodian Albert Wiggan.<\/p>\n

Wiggan, a spokesperson for Kimberley Voices for Country, describes the region as \u201ca\u00a0garden of Eden\u201d. He says it is a place that has\u00a0never registered an extinction of any species.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have the same species here ever since day\u00a0dot,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no other place like it on the planet. It\u2019s only when you come to the Kimberley that you appreciate how magic it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fracking is banned in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, but permitted with varied restrictions in other states and territories. It was banned in Western Australia after a 2017 state inquiry found economic benefits were slight and environmental risks were beyond regulatory scope. That ban was lifted in 2019, however, when Texan oilman Rhett Bennett bought an exploration permit over the Canning Basin \u2013 an area twice the size of Victoria, covering the Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment.<\/p>\n

Bennett registered Bennett Resources, a fracking subsidiary of his Black Mountain Energy company. He faced unprecedented resistance among Kimberley\u2019s 40,000 residents, almost half of them Indigenous.<\/p>\n

Indigenous Culture is maintained through intact songlines \u2013 \u201ca sort of mapping\u201d, says Wiggan. Songlines here flow with the river, its tributaries and aquifers, \u201cthe sacred source of creation. The water serpent formed the waterholes and forged the landscape within our ceremonies, our language, our protocols, our dance, our corroborees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Posting a call on social media, Wiggan galvanised support across Australia, alongside frack free campaigns by groups including Kimberley Land Council, Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, Lock the Gate and Environs Kimberley.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been defending the Kimberley since colonisation,\u201d says Environs Kimberley executive director Martin Pritchard, who describes the region as \u201cthe largest, most intact tropical savanna in the world \u2013 its coastline is in the top 4 per cent of pristine coastlines on the planet, with an incredible culture that\u2019s alive and rich here. There\u2019s nowhere like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allied Kimberley bodies have fended off Alcoa, Origin, Mitsubishi and Squadron Energy, but a battle persists against Black Mountain, which according to Boiling Cold energy bulletin has already spent $40\u00a0million on Project Valhalla, much of it overcoming seemingly insurmountable regulatory roadblocks. The project needs both state and federal approval for an initial 20 exploration wells in the Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment \u2013 a vast, heritage-listed area \u2013 which entail drilling about four kilometres into rock-shelved gas reservoirs. Megalitres of water, chemicals and sand would be forced into rock layers to fracture them, releasing gas.\u00a0The necessary infrastructure includes roads, processing plants, a pipeline and wastewater treatment.<\/p>\n

The state forbids export of onshore gas, but by late 2021, Bennett had secured an exemption. He repeatedly deferred a requirement to conduct a seismic survey and spend $8 million on an exploration well. He seemed undeterred by pressure on the Albanese government to tax gas exports and halt approvals for fossil fuel extraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndigenous groups are all connected through that one river … that disconnect between families impacts Country and Culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discussing his Australian investments on the American Powers podcast in 2021, Bennett remained sceptical about anthropogenic climate change, claiming there were \u201cperiods of time when CO2 concentrations were 30 [times] what they are today \u2013 apparently our ancestors survived\u201d. (Homo sapiens evolved an estimated 300,000 years ago; consensus science holds that atmospheric concentration of CO2 is currently the highest in 16 million years.)<\/p>\n

Black Mountain claimed Project Valhalla would operate with \u201cnet-zero carbon emissions\u201d, but in 2023, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission fined it for greenwashing and false or misleading claims. It found Black Mountain\u2019s sustainability claims \u201chad no credible basis\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nor was the Australian government\u2019s Independent Expert Scientific Committee convinced. It found \u201csubstantial uncertainty\u201d in Project Valhalla\u2019s hydrology claims, doubting its \u201cability to assess all potential impacts on water resources\u201d. It found \u201cbaseline data, model outputs and conclusions drawn\u201d were \u201cnot sufficient\u201d and \u201clargely unsupported\u201d. The claim that Project Valhalla wouldn\u2019t impact downstream water resources wasn\u2019t substantiated, nor did it prove vulnerable species \u2013 sawfish, northern blue-tongued lizard and greater bilby \u2013 would not be at risk.<\/p>\n

Kimberley residents, too, were sceptical, following studies finding correlations between proximity to fracking fields and childhood cancer and premature deaths. Widely screened films about fracking\u2019s contamination hazards \u2013 Gasland (2010), Don\u2019t Frack Our Future (2013) and Groundswell Rising (2015) \u2013 have helped cement public opinion. Polling shows an overwhelming majority of Western Australian residents oppose fracking, according to the Conservation Council of WA.<\/p>\n

Failing to raise investor capital, Black Mountain delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange and faced another setback when the November 2025 Western Australian Labor Party conference voted again to ban fracking. When the company revised estimates to the state\u2019s Environmental Protection Authority of each well\u2019s water use to 100 million litres \u2013 more than twice original estimates, in a water-scarce state \u2013 its application seemed unwinnable.<\/p>\n

In January this year, however, the EPA found risks posed by Project Valhalla were \u201cinsignificant\u201d and recommended it for ministerial approval, with conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are absolutely aghast,\u201d says Pritchard. \u201cThey see the Kimberley as a sacred cultural and environmental landscape and they cannot understand how the EPA made this recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s anxiety and mistrust,\u201d says Wiggan. He says ongoing battles against extractors impose trauma on Kimberley people. \u201cThe feeling was genuine fear. I always thought protection meant keeping something free from harm,\u201d he says, but the EPA \u201cfailed the Kimberley and what we have protected since the Dreamtime\u201d.<\/p>\n

WA EPA chair Darren Walsh says his recommendation will \u201censure that significant environmental harm does not occur\u201d. The authority noted fracking wouldn\u2019t proceed until an improved \u201cregulatory framework\u201d was\u00a0introduced.<\/p>\n

Enforceable fracking standards and Traditional Owner rights of veto have long been promised but are not yet legislated.<\/p>\n

Responding to questions from The Saturday Paper, Walsh says Black Mountain \u201chas an Indigenous Land Use Agreement in place with the Yungngora people and a Land Access and Use Agreement in place with the Warlangurru people\u201d.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s disagreement within these groups, however, and other Aboriginal communities within Bennett\u2019s leaseholding oppose Project Valhalla. Black Mountain \u201chasn\u2019t spoken to downstream communities at risk\u201d, says Bunuba advocate Millie Hills, who describes the catchment as \u201ca life-vein that runs throughout the Kimberley \u2013 our waterholes to hunt and gather, where we teach our kids to fish and collect food. It\u2019s how our ancestors lived back in the day; we still do that\u00a0today.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says a minority of individuals have succumbed to \u201cthe royalties chucked into their faces\u201d.<\/p>\n

Black Mountain executive director Michael Laurent did not respond to emailed questions, but the company\u2019s website states it will fund football teams, art supplies, laptops, barbecues, clothing, \u201ccultural training\u201d and \u201cscience classes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Albert Wiggan says some Traditional Owners are vulnerable to exploitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people need financial support, they\u2019re struggling. We\u2019ve seen it before \u2013 promised royalties and benefit to improve disadvantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such deals \u201ccreate division and conflict\u201d, he says. \u201cIndigenous groups are all connected through that one river\u201d but \u201cthat disconnect between families impacts Country and Culture when the relationship between communities is fractured. Fracking creates access restrictions for Aboriginal people; it contaminates water tables, aquifers and water basins \u2026 they\u2019re all interconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n

A federal government spokesperson tells The Saturday Paper, \u201cEngagement with First Nations people is part of the referral and assessment process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

In February, with limited time and despite a $10 fee, the community launched an unprecedented volume of appeals, urging WA Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn to reject the EPA recommendation. Assisted by Environs Kimberley crowdfunding, appeals surpassed 8000, easily breaking the prior record of 727.<\/p>\n

A state government spokesperson tells The Saturday Paper it \u201cwould be inappropriate to comment on it while [the appeal] process is ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pritchard says next steps might include electoral tactics. \u201cThe safe Labor seat of Fremantle was nearly lost [last election] to an independent who took up the Kimberley fracking cause. The Labor Party will also remember the near-loss of the prized Kimberley seat in 2013 to the Greens\u201d amid the fight against Woodside\u2019s proposed gas refinery.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t come to the Kimberley to see gas fields,\u201d says Millie Hills. \u201cThey come to see unspoilt nature and experience our ancient culture. We don\u2019t want fracking \u2013 we\u2019ve seen what happened in Texas. Fitzroy is a mighty big river system vital to our living and our health; our wilderness and waterways provide for us and we rely on them for Cultural practices. Water is more precious than gas. I\u2019m gonna keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on
\n March 14, 2026 as “The Texan fracker”.<\/p>\n

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