The Project
More than 50 million hectares of Western Australia is currently covered by coal and gas licences or applications. The risks of unconventional gas to the state are immense.
Unconventional gasfields cause the industrialisation of entire landscapes, with thousands of gas wells plus vast networks of roads and pipelines, compressor stations, processing plants, wastewater holding dams and treatment plants.
They also represent a severe risk to precious water resources. For example, fracking guzzles water at an extraordinary rate. It can take up to 1,100 truckloads of water to frack one gas well!
Companies want to drill for gas in the iconic tourist destination and premier wine-producing area of Western Australia - the magnificent South-West. This would involve drilling through vital water resources, like the Yarragadee aquifer, which is a groundwater source for the south-west and Perth.
Nothing is sacred – internationally significant natural areas like the Kimberley, the rich hinterland of the Swan and Chittering Valleys, and the crucial food-producing areas of the Mid West are also under threat from industrial gasfields.
The Opportunity
The gas companies are running well-funded, slick, marketing campaigns to try and get their foot in the door. So we need funds to help raise awareness in the lead-up to the WA election to encourage all political parties to put in place the strongest possible protections for land and water resources.
We’ll be working with local groups in WA, holding public meetings, running stalls, showing inspiring films, talking to voters and supporting a focused grassroots campaign to create the people power we need to protect communities.
We’re also jointly supporting a massive concert with the John Butler Trio in WA in late November.
The community campaign in Western Australia already has enormous momentum, with massive turn-outs for town hall meetings, new groups forming and the Gasfield Free Community survey process underway in numerous locations.
This proposal will turn that momentum into real political power, with the aim of making the risks of unconventional gasfields front and centre of the election campaign and demanding real change.