Fracking company’s shareholder prospectus referred to ASX and ASIC over glaring omissions

Lock The Gate Alliance has referred concerns over serious inaccuracies contained in Black Mountain Energy’s recently published share prospectus to the ASX and ASIC.  Black Mountain, a Texas-headquartered fracking company, is raising capital via the Australian Stock Exchange to fund works associated with its planned Valhalla fracking project near Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley. The company has also said it wants to build a pipeline from the Valhalla area to the Pilbara for export. LTGA fears such a move could lead to significant areas of the Kimberley being opened up for gas fracking fields. Continue reading

McGowan Government bends over backwards for frackers

The McGowan Government is bending its own rules to encourage a fracking project that threatens to lay waste to the Kimberley’s world renowned landscape. Continue reading

Gas Update in the Shire of Dandaragan

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.       Continue reading

Cable Beach to host Kimberley Calling: a Frack Free Kimberley Concert

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. Continue reading

WA taxpayers slugged millions for fracking cleanup, FOI documents reveal

Freedom of Information (FOI) documents obtained by Broome conservation group Environs Kimberley reveal the McGowan Government slugged WA taxpayers with a multimillion dollar clean-up bill for a gaswell after the fracking company behind it went bust, and then gave incorrect information to parliament about the matter. Continue reading

Feb 9, 2021: Black Mountain Kimberley frack plan to undergo assessment despite promised laws not yet in place

Broome based conservation group Environs Kimberley has condemned the McGowan Government for paving the way for the EPA assessment of a plan by a Texan company to frack 20 gaswells, despite promised safeguards not yet being in place. Continue reading

Farmers furious over government’s Waitsia 2 approval

Locals who will be impacted by the Waitsia Gas Project Stage 2 are outraged after Western Australia Environment Minister Stephen Dawson formally approved the polluting project today (February 1). Farmer Rod Copeland said the McGowan Government was ignoring opposition to projects like Waitsia 2 because it was arrogantly confident it would be re-elected thanks to its Covid-19 response.   Continue reading

27 Jan 2021: Texan frackers have second crack at ramming polluting Kimberley plan through WA EPA

Conservation group Environs Kimberley is calling on the WA Environmental Protection Authority to reject Texan-owned fracking company Bennett Resources’ push to frack twenty wells in the catchment of the National Heritage listed Fitzroy River. The company, a subsidiary of Black Mountain, lodged an application with the EPA last week to drill and frack up to 20 gas wells 51 kilometres west of Fitzroy Crossing, in the catchment of the Fitzroy River. That’s despite the EPA terminating an earlier proposal by the company to drill and frack six wells near Fitzroy Crossing because, according to the company, two years of baseline environmental studies was required. Environs Kimberley Director, Martin Pritchard said, “We call on the EPA to clarify why, less than two months after Bennett Resources' six well proposal was terminated due to a lack of baseline data, the company now has a much larger proposal on the table. Surely two years’ worth of studies haven't been completed in under two months." “This is a highly polluting industry and not fit for the world-renowned Kimberley. The EPA should reject the proposal as it did for the previous six well proposal. “The three wells that have been fracked in the Kimberley since 2010 have all had problems, including well integrity issues, gas leaks and radioactive wastewater pumped to the surface.  “We can’t risk this industry in a place where companies are unable to guarantee that there won’t be water pollution. “We know that when fracking gets started it soon turns into hundreds if not thousands of wells. It happened in the USA, it happened in Queensland, and it will happen here too if Black Mountain gets a foothold. We can’t have that happening here. It would destroy the landscape of the Kimberley, destroy the habitat of threatened species and damage the biggest industry we have here, tourism.”

25 Jan 2021: McGowan Needs to Rule Out Fracking Fast-track

Lock the Gate Alliance is calling on the McGowan Government to categorically rule out the inclusion of any unconventional gas projects in the recently announced development fast-track, given their failure to implement commitments from the 2018 fracking inquiry.     Continue reading

July 23, 2020: McGowan Government backflips on fracking commitment?

It appears the McGowan Government has broken a commitment to restrict fracking to existing petroleum leases, according to Lock the Gate Alliance. The WA Government has announced the release of four large petroleum exploration lots making up over 14,000km2 located in the Pilbara, Gascoyne, Mid West, and Wheatbelt. Continue reading