Renowned musicians will perform at “Kimberley Calling: a Frack Free Kimberley Concert” in support of Mangala Traditional Owners who oppose plans by petroleum companies to lay waste to their homelands in the Great Sandy Desert region of the Kimberley.
The gig, supported by Environs Kimberley and Lock the Gate Alliance WA, aims to provide Mangala Traditional Owners with a platform to raise their concerns over plans by Origin Energy, Buru Energy, and Theia Energy to frack Mangala Country.
Mangala elder Madeleine Jadai said, “We want to save our Country and to leave it as it is - for us, for our children, and their children.
“Our Country is special to us. The plants and the animals. Also it’s spiritual for us. Handed down from our forefathers.
“Fracking companies need to leave Country as it is, it’s alive.”
Environs Kimberley director Martin Pritchard said, “The McGowan government is about to open the door to fracking in the Kimberley despite it being banned in the southwest and Perth regions. If oil and gas companies get their way, we could see tens of thousands of wells drilled and fracked across the Kimberley’s unique and fragile landscape.
“Not only would this be a disaster for the Kimberley’s water, plants, and animals but it would be a death blow to the half a billion dollar per annum tourism industry. Tourists come to the Kimberley to see an intact landscape, they won’t come here if it's turned into oil and gas fields.”
“The Kimberley has the most intact tropical savannah in the world. We cannot allow it to be industrialised by the fracking industry.
“The oil and gas industry’s plans to industrialise this iconic region are completely at odds with the community’s vision for the Kimberley as a natural and cultural icon, and a tourism mecca.”
Lock the Gate Alliance WA coordinator Claire McKinnon said the WA McGowan Government was yet to implement promised legislation that would give Traditional Owners a right to say no to fracking companies trying to invade their land.
“This was a promise made in response to the 2018 fracking inquiry, and repeated in the leadup to the last election, yet is still not enshrined in law.
“It’s just one of several promises the McGowan Government made, but has not kept since the fracking moratorium was overturned. Landholders are also still unable to refuse entry to fracking companies, and drinking water is being put at risk.
“We sincerely hope members of the McGowan Government listen to what Mangala Traditional Owners will say on the 17th.”
When: from 5pm Saturday July 17
Who: John Butler, For Sure, The Mexicans, Wil Thomas and other special guests including Mangala community speakers
Where: Cable Beach Amphitheatre, Broome