No Gas
The people of Broome won a significant campaign against a proposed $45 billion project – in April 2013 they stopped the development of a gas plant and port at iconic James Price Point (Walmadan). They had substantial political and corporate interests arrayed against them – the world’s largest multinational oil and gas companies, a determined state government as proponent who deployed police, and changed laws to suit, and a federal government unwilling to intervene.
When industry comes to your town and says we are going to build a great LNG plant and provide jobs and security for your community, most people would rise up in arms and say fuck no! That is what they did in Broome and the surrounding communities when the Perth-based oil and gas company Woodside proposed a massive LNG plant on the sacred lands of James Price Point. The case study for stopping Woodside and a supportive government can be viewed below. Andy and I first encountered this fight at a town hall meeting in Broome back in May, 2012 and decided to get involved. Simon introduced us to Alan Pigram whose band the Pigram Brothers were play music at demonstrations and we met Albert Wiggan and Mark Jones and we jumped into the fray full force and never looked back.
It was not our fight, not our land even our country but they needed help. Simon was trying to document the existence of a new species of Pigmy Spinner Dolphin - something that if found would slow down the LNG plant construction. We made several boat trips out to collect DNA samples as Simon had the equipment and qualifications to do this with minimum impact on the animals. We explored the ocean around Broome, then went to Yawajaba Island and Freshwater Cove to Tuck's Frewshwater Cove camp to explore. Finally we flew to Kalumburu then to Berkeley River then into the Timor Sea near Mungalau. We visited a protest camp near James Price Point where they had found a dead dolphin on the beach and saved it for Simon. He took DNA samples and sent them off to the lab.
There is this feeling about being on a team trying to stop something bad from damaging a cultural landscape like the Kimberley. We really did not know exactly what was a t stake at this time but Mark, Alan and Simon explained the ramifications of Woodside getting a foothold in the Kimberley. Andy and I made the film Keeping Country to be less about the battle for James Price Point and more about protecting country for all people in the Kimberley. The Kimberley Land Council mission statement says it all about protecting Country and this way of life that has existed for tens of thousands of years.
For more information on this campaign go to https://commonslibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/James-Price-Point-Walmadan-Case-Study.pdf
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