Gas projects have been on the nose in and around most of the communities in the Shire of Dandaragan. Since the Gasfield Free Declaration in the area surrounding and including the Dandaragan town there have been no new wells drilled.
However, there is one now being planned to be drilled just on the west side of the Brand Hwy, near Cataby. The proposed well has been labelled Walyering 5 and will see the company (Strike Energy) drill an exploration well close to 4km deep. The proposed well is on farmland between the Tronox and Iluka mineral sand mines and a few hundreds of meters from the Minyulo Brook. This could spell the start of a new Gasfield in the area, and the company has not ruled out fracking in the future. Strike Energy has drilled its 4th well near Three Springs and Mingenew at its West Erregulla exploration Gasfield, they have drilled to a final depth of just over 5km. You may have heard of Strike Energy through the controversy in the National COVID-19 commission of which Neville Power chaired whilst being on the Strike Energy board as Deputy Chair.
There is also a proposal just south east of the Pinnacles called the Raven 2D seismic, this has been on the radar for over a year now, they have not yet undertaken a survey of the area due to the involvement of community members in the EPA process. In June 2020 following the community consultation process the EPA decided to assess the proposal and asked the company for more information after around 200 people asked for the project to be assessed. This has so far stalled the process for the past year. Mineral/Energy Resources who are proposing the Raven survey have recently completed seismic surveying at Beermullah, north of Gingin, near Red Gully. A landholder has had difficulty accessing their own property due to the seismic activities with no notice from the company and has had their own farming operations interrupted for almost 2 months.
Fracking is NOT banned in any of the above exploration lease areas.
If you would like some more info or would like to come along to a local action group meeting, please contact Jarrad: [email protected]