Executive Director
@EnviroCentreNT
. Thinking about the nexus between extraction, the environment, and the state. Views here are my own, not my employer’s.
“Gas Town: Darwin”.
I wrote this to explain how our home is being sacrificed to unprecedented fossil fuel expansion, from Beetaloo to Barossa, to the vast Middle Arm gas hub, bankrolled by the taxpayer to the tune of $1.9b. It makes me very sad.
Traditional Owners have travelled 5000km to Parliament House to unveil a simply extraordinary 13 metre long map of the songlines and cultural places that make up the Roper River in the NT, under threat from fracking, cotton and mining.
It’s time for those in power to listen.
21 out of 22 remote polling booths in NT First Nations communities resoundingly wrote “yes”.
The “no” vote in the major non-Indigenous centres of Darwin, Katherine, Alice Springs trumped that in the NT’s final count.
We sure have some reckoning to do.
The NT Govt has just declared the largest water allocation in NT history for cotton and fracking.
It allocates a massive 210 billion litres per year from an aquifer that keeps the major rivers flowing.
Big business over communities, every damn time.
The bulldozers destroying habitat for endangered Gouldian Finches, black-footed tree rats and over 270 bird species at Binybara/Lee Point.
This is a place beloved by thousands of people across Darwin. Its loss is a failure of our environment laws, and deeply upsetting.
Tiwi people have done it again - their courage knows no bounds!
They have applied to Minister Plibersek for urgent protection of their sacred underwater cultural heritage in the face of Santos’ plans to construct a pipeline for its Barossa project.
The emergency application by Larrakia people to halt the desecration of Lee Point has temporarily stopped bulldozers at the site.
However, work is continuing on the site and Larrakia are calling for a complete stop to the destruction.
In response to the Fyles Government’s disastrous decision to green-light fracking the Beetaloo Basin, a new coalition of community groups, orgs and people has formed in the NT today - the No New Gas coalition.
Climate action means no Beetaloo, no Barossa and no Middle Arm.
Huge legal challenge being heard this week re the biggest groundwater licence ever granted in the NT.
It will drawdown the aquifer by 50m,
kill up to 30% of groundwater dependent ecosystems and, like all water licences here, was given out for free.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has rejected an application by Larrakia people to protect Lee Point from the bulldozers.
This precious place is home to 300 bird species, including the iconic Gouldian Finch, and is beloved by so many here.
Please read this beautiful, heartbreaking letter from Larrakia leader Mililma May calling on
@tanya_plibersek
to halt the destruction of a culturally important ancient forest at Lee Point.
The trees in this special place predate colonisation.
@GetUp
@up_rising_
This is what motivates and terrifies me.
Darwin will be uninhabitable by 2070 if we don’t act now to curb emissions.
Yet we’re pursuing gas mega projects - Barossa, Beetaloo and Middle Arm - that will speed us towards climate collapse.
@weskrantz
I hereby approve Finn’s placement at
@EnviroCentreNT
, in the interests of both retaining
@weskrantz
as Comms Manager, and Finn’s continued services to humanity.
Hundreds gathered this morning at Lee Point/Binybara.
Works have been paused for a third time following allegations of unlawful clearing, 80% habitat remains, and the community is strong.
This is a failure of federal environmental law, but a huge win for the power of community.
Geoffrey Watson: “I don’t know what’s going on up there… I’ve never seen such a comparably obvious conflict of interest.”
The NT Chief Minister’s adviser’s company is registered as a lobbyist for Beetaloo fracking company Tamboran.
It’s been revealed that NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles secretly holds shares in the company that runs an NT manganese mine.
She refused as Health Minister to investigate suspected heavy metal poisoning of Indigenous Territorians at the mine.
Today is also a good day for the Australian Government to pull $1.5 billion of public funds for a huge fracked gas and petrochem hub in Darwin Harbour, which could tip the NT over the edge of habitability.
Let’s spend the $ on renewables and lowering the cost of living instead.
With
@BOM_au
issuing heatwave warnings for Qld, NT & northern WA, today is a good day to:
🆒 seek cool places - at home, shopping centres or public libraries/pools
🚰 stay hydrated
👵 check on your neighbours.
Stay safe and monitor the warnings at
Massive news! An extension of the halt on cultural and ecological destruction at Lee Point/Binybara has been secured until August 11.
Thank you to Larrakia Danggalaba Traditional Owners for your ongoing defence of this incredible place.
Larrakia Danggalaba Traditional Custodians have won an extended temporary halt to land clearing at Lee Point/Binybara!
Lawyers from
@EJ_Aus
, acting on behalf of Larrakia TO Tibby Quall, have temporarily stopped bulldozers until August 11.
We’re at the front of the NT Supreme Court, where people have travelled from the desert to challenge Beetaloo fracker Tamboran’s approvals on climate grounds.
Fracking the Beetaloo could generate 1.2 BILLION tonnes of emissions, increasing Australia’s emissions by 11%.
Last year, magically, over 200 endangered Gouldian Finches descended at Lee Point in Darwin. Their habitat may be bulldozed this week.
Our politicians have failed us, our laws have failed us, it’s left to the community to save this very special place. Please show up on Sunday!
To be clear, this is new legislation pursued by the gas industry under urgency to enable dumping of CO2 in East Timorese waters from Santos’ Barossa field, one of the dirtiest gas fields in the world, opposed by Tiwi Traditional Owners.
It’s to enable fossil fuel expansion.
The Minister for the Environment and Water
@tanya_plibersek
has introduced the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Amendment (Using New Technologies to Fight Climate Change) Bill 2023 in the House this morning.
To find out more, visit: .
Let’s applaud the 45 brave paediatricians from the NT (and with links to the NT) who have written to the Chief Minister - who is also the Health Minister - urging her to withdraw support for fracking the Beetaloo Basin on health grounds. 👏 👏 👏
If Labor backbenchers believe that “not a cent” of public money should be spent on gas, then I really hope the revolt extends to urging Labor to dump the $1.5 billion Middle Arm gas hub subsidy, which will open up fracking in the Beetaloo Basin.
For everyone following Lee Point, the bulldozers have arrived on site this morning.
Over 270 bird species, including the endangered Gouldian Finch, live here. This is a monumental failure of our environmental laws.
Over 13 million hectares of the NT has burnt in the last couple of months, with 80% of the NT forecast to burn this summer. Animals, plants, land lost.
As usual, very few are paying attention to our part of the world.
The Beetaloo and Middle Arm projects are a climate bomb that can’t be offset, but CSIRO’s gas industry-funded study says otherwise.
Thank you to
@BillHareClimate
for expertly unpacking we’ve been gaslit, with CSIRO and govt arm-in-arm with the industry.
"All the way along the river we are saying no to cotton”: Wandarang Nunggubuyu senior elder and artist Walter Rogers
The magnificent Roper River in the NT is under threat from fracking, cotton and mining.
People across Garamilla/Darwin - and the country - are grieving as one of the last wildlife corridors in Darwin, habitat for Gouldian Finches, black footed tree rats and northern brushtail possums, and 270 bird species, was flattened this week for defence housing.
Huge news, with the first ever prosecution for alleged unlawful land clearing in the NT.
Shocking images showing clearing for cotton on the banks of the iconic Daly River were first beamed across Australia in a
@abc730
report 12 months ago.
Lee Point/Binybara is emerging as a litmus test for the Albanese Government not only on its commitment to halt extinctions, but also to First Nations rights.
The eyes of millions are on our exquisite part of the world.
The Albanese Government’s Future Gas Strategy is a betrayal and capitulation to the gas lobby.
Northern Australia will be unliveable if we continue to open up new gas projects, including Santos’ Barossa, fracking the Beetaloo and the Middle Arm gas hub.
Disgraceful.
Please watch and share this moving speech by Tiwi leader Therese Bourke in the Senate last week.
She's asking the Australian Govt to stop a law that would threaten First Nations consultation rights about offshore gas projects, and effectively bypass federal enviro law.
As the bulldozers are paused at Binburra/Lee Point, a new application to bulldoze 460 hectares of stunning savanna right next to Elsey National Park at Mataranka has been lodged.
It's one of the most highly valued cultural and natural places in the Northern Territory.
The iconic Mataranka Hot Springs, and the Roper River into which it discharges, is under threat from massive allocations for fracking, cotton and agriculture.
At what point do we say enough is enough?
People across Australia watched in horror as part of Lee Point was flattened last week. In breaking news, Defence Housing Australia has paused works in response to allegations of illegal clearing.
We’re calling for prosecution and a Senate probe.
The Albanese Government passed new laws this week to enable Santos and other fossil fuel companies to dump their CO2 in the Timor Leste seabed.
Here’s a great new report showing why this is a very very bad idea, with huge risks to our climate and oceans.
📢 Just released! Our new report, “Deep Trouble: The Risks of Offshore Carbon Capture and Storage,” exposes the risks of storing carbon beneath the ocean floor. 🌊
Dive in and find out why
#OffshoreCCS
is no solution to
#FossilFuel
pollution. 🛢️
Larrakia leader Lorraine Williams asking why this state-mandated destruction of Larrakia culture is happening during NAIDOC week. It’s for a Defence Housing Australia development ffs.
Yes why?
@RichardMarlesMP
@SenKatyG
@tanya_plibersek
#saveleepoint
A disastrous decision for Traditional Owners, taxpayers, the environment and local communities.
The effect is that mining companies do not need to pay security bond that reflects the actual cost of rehabilitation, leaving us all to shoulder the costs.
Over 1 million hectares has burned in the Barkly in the last 2 weeks. A smoke haze swathes the land. Animals, habitat, destroyed, as students protest mass expansion of the fossil fuel industry in the NT.
Climate dystopia is here. 🙏🏻 Oliver Chaseling.
"No subsidies for fossil fuels", they said.
Instead, the Budget commits $1.9 billion for "Middle Arm", a petrochemicals manufacturing precinct planned for Darwin Harbour, which will use Beetaloo Basin gas as a feedstock. It's a disaster for our climate, health and harbour.
The NT Govt’s submission to the Middle Arm Senate Inquiry says pouring $1.5billion in taxpayer funds into a gas and petrochemical hub will help “Close the Gap”.
Larrakia elder Eric Fejo: “That’s like saying we’ll rip your veins out to save your blood”.
Great to see a review of these outrageous handouts of public money for Beetaloo fracking companies.
Now it’s time for the Fed Government to withdraw the biggest fossil fuel subsidy of all - its commitment for $1.5 billion for the Middle Arm Gas Hub.
The NT Government commissioned a peer review of an enviro group’s report that found an NT cotton industry could have significant negative impacts on our rivers and nature, and whoops, it backed up the report’s key findings.
Binburra/Lee Point defenders going strong and building power (Midnight Oil soundtrack added, of course).
There is something special happening in Garamilla/Darwin right now.
We stand with Larrakia Traditional Owners defending this place from the bulldozers.
A culturally important ancient forest - habitat for endangered Gouldian finches and 200 other bird species - is about to be bulldozed in Garamilla/Darwin.
This is a terrible tragedy and failure.
The NT Chief Minister has been referred to NTICAC over her political adviser's gas lobbying ties.
It has been revealed that her adviser’s company is registered as a lobbyist for Beetaloo fracker Tamboran, a major proponent at taxpayer funded Middle Arm.
A medical presentation at Royal Darwin Hospital on the health impacts of fracking has been cancelled due to a “perception of bias”.
This is censorship and state capture in action. It pervades every conceivable level of decision-making in this town.
Hello from the NT, where station owners have applied to bulldoze 5800 hectares of ghost bat and Gouldian finch habitat near the Daly, while also being prosecuted for unlawful land clearing.
Will Minister Plibersek act?
Please sign petition:
The Albanese Govt has snookered itself and finally been forced to admit that its $1.5b subsidy for Middle Arm is to enable gas expansion. It’s a fossil fuel subsidy.
Great analysis by
@adamlmorton
, following a stellar investigation by
@_LisaMCox
Hundreds rallied to save Lee Point from destruction today at Garamilla/Darwin.
We listened to the wisdom of Larrakia knowledge-holders, dwelt on the beauty of our surrounds, and decried the short sightedness of decision-makers who will let this old growth forest be bulldozed.
Breaking: the first purchaser of Beetaloo gas will be none other the NT Government, which has entered into a binding agreement with fracker Tamboran. This takes state capture to a whole new level.
Fracking the Beetaloo will generate 1.2 billion tonnes of GHG emissions.
This is getting more terrifying by the day.
Meanwhile, yesterday our Resources Minister derided parents who interrupted Beetaloo fracker Tamboran's speech at a Darwin conference on climate grounds as "extremists" who spread "misinformation".
“Leave this water alone. It’s from the beginning…”
A stunning film highlighting Traditional Owner opposition to the largest groundwater licence ever granted in Australia, in the desert of Central Australia. It will draw down the aquifer by 50m and destroy sacred sites.
Watch the first release in the Water Justice Series now. Featuring voices directly from the remote community of Ali Curung in the central desert of Australia. 30 km to the west of the community is Singleton Station, where Australia's largest groundwater licence was granted.
An extraordinary win for Territorians and ALL Australians as the Albanese Government votes in favour of a Senate Inquiry into the Middle Arm gas and petrochemical hub!
We deserve to know how $1.5b in taxpayer funds has been promised for mass fossil fuel expansion.
We’re in Canberra this week with Traditional Owners, parents, doctors and community members from across the Northern Territory callling on politicians to stop Beetaloo, Barossa and Middle Arm.
We can’t open up new gas fields in the NT and have a safe and liveable future.
We called it the Santos amendment for a reason.
Turns out a special Albanese Govt law legalising CCS in the Timor Leste seabed, was directly requested by Santos.
It will greenwash not only the Barossa project, but a raft of new NT gas projects.
New docs reveal that taxpayers could be on the hook for $3.5 BILLION for the Middle Arm gas export hub, more than twice the $1.5b so far committed by the Albanese Govt.
It’s a massive fossil fuel subsidy, at odds with claims of fossil fuel phaseout.
Huge whistleblower story out of the Beetaloo, with courageous contractors alleging Tamboran Resources kept spraying contaminated Beetaloo water for up to five days.
This is one well, what will happen when there are 6000 across the NT?
The NT Govt backflipped on a proposed net zero policy to address massive Beetaloo fracking emissions after the gas industry - Santos, Inpex - objected.
They only consulted the gas industry. They see nothing wrong with this. This is how it works here.
Working with archaeologists, Tiwi people can today reveal an extraordinary underwater world of ancient cultural sites, of international significance.
They fear a Juukan Gorge scale disaster if Santos’ Barossa project goes ahead. Watch 7.30 tonight!
The NT Govt has rushed through mining reforms that mean Traditional Owners and
@EnviroCentreNT
must discontinue their 3 year legal battle over the security bond at the most toxic mine site in Australia, Glencore’s McArthur River Mine. Heartbreaking.
The destruction at Lee Point has been halted until 17 July following intervention by Larrakia Traditional Owners.
The Lee Point camp continues.
Please follow Kulumbirigin Danggalaba owned & run
@up_rising_
for updates regarding the Larrakia legal intervention and campaign.
“Up there in the canopy, can you hear the birdsong?”
The destruction of habitat for 270 birds, including endangered Gouldian Finches, at Lee Point in Darwin is set to continue is today, with hundreds of community members gathering at dawn in protest.
The Australian Govt has “joined with the Korea and Japan” to give $9.5m to a gas industry-loaded CCS think-tank - with members including Santos, Woodside and Inpex - to “boost international efforts” to advance CCS.
Yet another fossil fuel subsidy.
Santos is pushing ahead with drilling and pipeline construction plans, despite Tiwi opposition.
“It is blatantly obvious that our voice is being ignored when it comes to fossil fuel projects in this country”, Tiwi Barossa campaigner Antonia Burke.
The Northern Territory has the largest intact savanna biome in the world - it’s a national treasure.
Yet the NT Govt has unveiled plans for 100,000ha of cotton by decade’s end, including a proposal to gut our already woeful land clearing laws.
It’s possible that backing a massive gas and petrochemical hub in the middle of Darwin Harbour using fracked Beetaloo gas as a feedstock - and seeking a $1.5b taxpayer handout from the feds for it - was not the most brilliant of strategies.
#BREAKING
🚨 A new poll shows Labor losing HALF its vote from 2020 in the NT ahead of next year’s election ⬇️
🟥 Labor: 19.7%
🟧 Country Libs: 40.6%
🟩 Greens: 13.1%
🟫 Shooters & Fishers: 9.4%
🟪 Animal Justice: 2.4%
⬜️ Independent: 14.9%
#6NewsAU
|
Record floods in Borroloola, 100s evacuated. Waters extend across the Beetaloo Basin where frackers want to drill 6000 wells and unleash 1.2 billion tonnes of emissions.
It’s madness to be pursuing this industry here as we face dangerous climate change.
Today, the Albanese Govt will pass a bill to allow dumping of carbon dioxide overseas.
We’re calling it the “Santos amendment”, bc it will enable it to greenwash its toxic Barossa project via CCS.
It’s (of course) been supported by the Coalition.
There’s been a beautiful Gouldian finch spotted at Lee Point/Binybara today, and I am feeling a little bit better about the world.
The bulldozers hve been stopped, for now.
Follow
@leepointcamp
&
@up_rising_
for more updates.
📸 Samantha Duffy
The Australian Govt wants to pass a law to bypass EPBC Act protections for offshore gas projects. It would concentrate power in Minister King (responsible for promoting the industry) and could threaten First Nations consultation rights.
Yep, it’s bad.
A sad day indeed for the Northern Territory’s climate and future as our Government gives the green light to the carbon bomb of fracking in the Beetaloo, claiming that all 135 recommendations of the Pepper Inquiry have been met.
The dismissal of opposition to gas, cotton in the NT as "southerner attacks" is wrong.
I am a long-term Territorian, run the NT's peak enviro org, and can tell you that 1000s in the NT oppose projects that will speed climate and biodiversity collapse.
Larrakia people have halted the destruction of Lee Point/Binburra on cultural grounds, for now.
Defence Housing Australia’s business model is premised on ecological and cultural destruction. Urban sprawl to make a buck, by a government entity.
On
@abc730
tonight, a major investigation by
@roxannefitzgrld
reveals repeated instances of alleged unlawful bulldozing of land for Big Cotton, with regulators either turning a blind eye or rubber stamping this conduct.
For those following the Lee Point/Binybara campaign, this is absolutely huge.
Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corp has withdrawn support for the development on the basis that “appropriate consultation was not completed on the project as purported by the authorities”.
💪 💪 💪
People are gathering at the Climate and Health day of action at Parliament House calling on politicians to stop the $1.5billion Middle Arm subsidy and fracking the Beetaloo and it’s pretty awesome.
It was wonderful to see Senator
@DavidPocock
at Lee Point in Garamilla/Darwin this afternoon.
Home to over 270 species of birds, beloved by thousands, it’s a travesty that our environmental laws will allow this savanna woodland to be bulldozed within days.
#saveleepoint
Welcome to the NT, where a biodiversity crisis won’t stop the Pastoral Land Board from greenlighting clearing of habitat on a massive scale.
Not one NT pastoral land clearing proposal in the NT has been referred under the EPBC Act. EPBC Act reforms must fix this.
Breaking: Inpex spewed 11,000 tonnes of cancer-causing volatile organic compounds into Darwin’s air in 2022. Their EIS estimated they’d emit only 500 tonnes pa.
The Middle Arm gas hub will worsen Darwin’s air pollution & is a danger to our health.
There was a huge petrochemical explosion at a Dow Chemicals factory in Louisiana last week, dubbed “cancer alley”.
Your regular reminder that the Albanese Govt is funding a $1.5b fracked gas and petrochem hub less than 3km from the Darwin suburbs.
The NT Govt has just made the biggest water allocation in the NT’s history, promising 210 billion litres of water a yr for fracking, cotton & mining.
Learn from 3 top experts just how dangerous this decision could be for rivers, aquifers and Country.
Another day, another 3500 hectares of habitat approved for bulldozing in the Northern Territory.
Not one pastoral land clearing application has been referred under the EPBC Act here. The Albanese Govt's decision to shelve nature law reforms will only speed the destruction.
As the bulldozers descend on
#leepoint
, another application is up online to bulldoze thousands of hectares of savanna woodland in the NT.
It won’t be referred under the EPBC Act or NT enviro laws, despite the application listing 15 threatened species, incl our fave finch.
One year ago, Tiwi people, represented by the legends at
@EDOLawyers
, slayed a giant, defeating Santos in the Federal Court over its failure to consult them about its offshore Barossa gas project.
The case has reverberated around the world. Barossa is still stalled. Incredible.
To be clear, the gas industry is calling for reforms to strip back First Nations consultation rights about offshore projects, won by Tiwi people in 2022. That’s what “clarity” means.
The media must be careful not to parrot gas industry strategy.
Minister Plibersek will allow clearing of endangered Gouldian Finch habitat to go ahead in Darwin.
This is profoundly disappointing for the many thousands of people in the Northern Territory who have been fighting to protect this beautiful place.
Devastating news - Australia’s Environment Minister
@tanya_plibersek
will allow land clearing by Defence Housing Australia to go ahead at Lee Point, despite the risks to one of Australia’s most beautiful birds.
The deal between the NT Govt and fracking company Tamboran has a real whiff about it.
"I have never seen a deal like this. To be striking an offtake agreement with a project that is unproven, undeveloped and unapproved … it's gobsmacking."
@tomdquinn
Still thinking about the NT implications of the State of the Environment report. Our savanna and arid zone ecosystems are collapsing & there’s been zero NTG policy response. Nada.
Instead, we’re sacrificing our land and water for fracking and cotton. It’s heartbreaking.
BREAKING: the players behind the $1.5b Middle Arm subsidy, including lobbying firm Dragoman, Andrew Liveris, Simon Crean, Robert Hill and lobbyist Paul Henderson.
Dragoman was engaged by the NTG to get the $ because it was “political giving season!”
Incredible protest right now in the blazing heat and humidity # on Larrakia country to stop new fossil fuel development in the Northern Territory.
We are the sacrifice zone: Beetaloo, Barossa and petrochemicals at Middle Arm.
#nonewgas
Turns out fracked gas petrochemical hubs are not good for the economy.
A hub backed by a $1.7b subsidy (sound familiar?) has not led to economic growth in the US. In fact it’s the opposite.
Give the middle finger to Middle Arm!
It shouldn’t take a Senate Inquiry for the NT Govt to admit what we already know.
Middle Arm is a $1.5 billion taxpayer funded gas and petrochemical hub that will lock in fossil fuel extraction for 50 years and damage our health, harbour and climate.