The Kimberley -- What's the Fuss? A Region as Vast as It Is Beautiful in North-West Australia, Faces Imminent Exploitation

Friday May 9, 2008, 11:23 am
Added: May 02, 2008
The Kimberley -- what's the fuss? A region as vast as it is beautiful in north-west Australia, faces imminent exploitation by an industrialising China, Japan
and the material world. Few have ever seen it. A few could destroy it if we don't network this to our friends and they to theirs. Hurry. View this now and
like anyone who has visited the Kimberley, this pristine wilderness changes lives.
And that's not romantic nonsense! Go and find out, now, before it's too late.

"Bigger than the Franklin River", decisions about industrial exploitation of this internationally significant part of the globe, will reverberate for centuries to
come. Right now, those decisions are being made on our behalf, without consulting us. Do we want the resources exploited for the dollars and for the skysrapers they'll help build, or do we want to slow down this exploitation of the Kimberley? It's NOT inevitable, but we must shout loud and long to ensure our say.
Astonishingly beautiful, the Kimberley in north-western Australia has a coastline stretching 1200 kilometres and does not have any human occupation. It is the breeding and calving ground to the largest group of humpback whales in the world. It has no recorded extinctions. It contains the world's most ancient and extensive rock art galleries. Science is clambering to make new discoveries
in the last great wilderness left on the planet.

North of the Kimberley, the Browse Basin has huge gas reserves worth billions. China & Japan want it and want it now.

Networking this to your friends alerts anyone who cares to find out more and help ensure Government and corporations don't sell off Australia's last great
wilderness, losing it forever more!

Friday May 9, 2008, 3:21 pm
This is another issue that we should pass along to our friend outside the community as well.

Sunday May 11, 2008, 7:55 pm
What are we doing about it? Do we drive trucks? Do we have large families? Do we buy large toys and appliances we don't need, cannot afford and do not make us happy? Do we worship celebrities who travel by private jet? Do we eat too much meat?

Monday May 12, 2008, 2:11 pm
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/20/2195433.htm

By Hamish Fitzsimmons

Posted Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:49pm AEDT


There is pressure on pristine parts of the Kimberley region further north to cash in on the seemingly endless riches. (ABC Radio)

Map: Karratha 6714
The pristine Kimberley region in Western Australia is one of the nation's natural wonders but that could change if a multi-million dollar gas project gets the green light.

Environmentalists are up in arms but the traditional landowners believe they are entitled to reap the financial rewards.

The Pilbara region is known as the hub of the Australian resources boom but now there is pressure on pristine parts of the Kimberley region further north to cash in on the seemingly endless riches.

A $40 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project has been proposed, that includes a massive production plant on islands that are home to turtles, dugongs and sensitive coral reefs.

The Federal and Western Australia governments have announced they will fast track environmental assessments of proposals, but the final decision will lie with the region's traditional land owners, represented by the Kimberley Land Council (KLC).

The KLC says it does not want to sacrifice its cultural heritage but is all too aware the revenue may provide a welfare-free future for its people.

Save the Kimberley spokesman Malcolm Douglas says the north-west Kimberley is one of the most important pristine savanna woodland left in the world.

"It's to us, it's as important as Antarctica or the Great Barrier Reef," he said.


Huge gas reserves

The Kimberley is a land full of mystery and beauty and also bountiful natural resources.

It is those resources that include gas and minerals which are now being eyed off by the world's miners.

The biggest prize is the offshore Browse Basin, which holds huge gas reserves.

The KLC knows this is a once in a lifetime chance to deal Indigenous people into the resources boom.

It has the task of choosing which parts of the coastline it might have to give up for the greater good.

KLC spokesman Wayne Bergmann says these are multi-billion dollar projects and traditional owners should expect no less than a multi-billion dollar deal.

"Our people are living in absolute poverty and crisis. We can't turn our back on that. We've got, we have a responsibility to try and change that," Mr Bergmann said.

The development plans have sparked emotional opposition from the community.

As head of the KLC, Mr Bergmann is largely responsible for trying to negotiate a revenue agreement that will provide for the future of the Indigenous community and strike a delicate social and cultural balance.

His days are spent travelling the vast tracts of the Kimberley speaking to traditional owners like the Bardi people at One Arm Point.

Bardi elder Frank Davey is one of the senior people that Mr Bergmann is seeking to win over.

"Money is not really important us to, our culture is more important. It's a very hard thing for us to sell," Mr Davey said.

"We never ever sold any of our culture and we are there to protect it."

Mr Bergmann says they need to know seriously the extent of the development of that project.

"To what extent they are going to affect our cultural values, the heritage values, the environmental values," he asked.

The remote Maret islands off the far north-west coast are the site of the biggest proposal in the region - a $40 billion LNG plant for a Japanese company, Inpex.

The Marets host a large turtle rookery and their waters are home to dugongs and migratory whales.

"Our concern is that they are going to decimate the turtle rookery on the island," Mr Douglas said.


Opposition growing

The opposition to any development on the Maret islands and the rest of the Kimberley is growing in strength and voice.

The Save the Kimberley group is campaigning nationally and started with a cruise on Sydney Harbour.

Some traditional owners like Bardi man Albert Wiggan have joined the campaign.

He does not believe the short-term gain from the development is worth the long-term impact.

"The only way you can really truly grasp the Kimberley is through your heart," Mr Wiggan said.

"It is the environment, it is the country, and it's a land that make us who we are.

"Without the land, and without the country, we belong to nothing and we end up nothing."

The Save the Kimberley group has also enlisted high profile recruits like film-maker Malcolm Douglas, who also runs a popular crocodile farm near Broome.

"There are very few wilderness areas left in the world," Mr Douglas said.

"Wilderness areas in 100 or 200 years are going to be more economically important to the good and wellbeing of the people of Australia and the rest of the world, than sticking some LNG plant up on the island there for 40 years."


Indigenous beneft

The KLC wants money from resources development to flow throughout the Kimberley to places like the Jarlmadangah community more than 150 kilometres from the coast.

The Jarlmadangah community has created its own employment programs and it also runs its own school but it wants to do more.

Jarlmadangah community spokesman Anthony Watson says to get real welfare, the community wants to be independent.

"It's one of our dreams," Mr Watson said.

Creating more jobs is proving harder and that is where people like Mr Watson believe resources revenue will make a big difference.

"The difficulty is getting funds to hit the ground to actually do those programs," he said.

"There's a shortage of jobs within this region, and shortage of infrastructure to actually to work under or to use as their job."

There is caution about the arrival of the resources companies.

Aboriginal elders look south to what they see as the mistakes made by other Indigenous people in preserving their heritage.

Developments like that on the Burrup Peninsula where parts of the world's largest collection of rock art have been removed, worry senior lawman people like John Watson.


Crucial point

Mr Watson, a Jarlmadangah community spokesman, says if it goes the right way through the Land Council, it will be a benefit to people.

"Otherwise if those mining companies are taking short cuts the people are not going to get no benefit," he said.

Mr Bergmann says the Aboriginal participation down south in the Pilbara, in Karratha, is not something to be proud of.

"The management of Aboriginal heritage is not something to be proud of. There is no way we're going to let that kind of record stand in the Kimberley," he said.

There is little doubt the stakes are high in the growth of resources development in the Kimberley.

One thing both parties in the debate agree on is that this is a crucial point in time in the history of the region.

Mr Bergmann says they want to find a balance between development and an environment and Indigenous culture.

Mr Douglas says there will be a worldwide campaign.

"Hypothetically they do allow the development up there. There is going to be a campaign, not in Australia, there's going to be a worldwide campaign," he said.

"It's going to be bigger than the Franklin