THE Kimberley region of northern WA is one of the world's great natural and Indigenous cultural regions, featuring stunning coastlines, lush areas of rainforest, vast savannahs, and pristine turquoise waters.
We owe it to future generations to preserve one of the last truly wild places we have left.
Incredibly, the North Kimberley is one of the few places in Australia that hasn't had any recorded mammal extinctions since European settlement. Because the Kimberley's environment is so pristine, it acts as a last refuge for many species such as the Northern Quoll and the Gouldian Finch.
Its coastal waters are a marine wonderland of species diversity, with world-class coral reefs, sea grasses and sponge gardens supporting the world's largest population of humpback whales, as well as snubfin dolphins, turtles, dugongs and an array of fish species.
However, new plans for large-scale development, including a proposal for a massive fossil fuel processing facility, threaten to fragment and transform the Kimberley into an industrial wasteland.
Right now, Woodside Petroleum's Browse joint venture (JV) partners - Chevron, Shell, BP and BHP - are deciding whether or not the Kimberley is their favoured site for a LNG processing plant.
If this proposal was to go ahead the impacts on the whales and other wildlife of the Kimberley would be devastating. The dredging, blasting, increased shipping, major accident risk, toxic pollution and greenhouse gas pollution would be long term and devastating to the environment and sustainable industries like tourism.
The JV partners are beginning to hear the message and have already indicated that they will not be bullied by Woodside and the State Government. Options like floating LNG processing and processing in the Pilbara where there is established industrial infrastructure make more environmental and economic sense than a 'greenfields' site that will impact heavily on the Kimberley and threaten the cultural landscape and the sustainable economic future for the region.
By joining this list of Kimberley campaign supporters you will be adding your voice, at a critical time, to a growing worldwide movement and sending a strong message to decision makers that the community will put their hands up and oppose damaging industrial development in the Kimberley. If we lose this wilderness area now, the Kimberley faces a grim future.
Take Action: Add your hand to the Kimberley map!
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