18th May, 2012

Two ladies in their 60’s have locked themselves to a vehicle parked across the Manari Road access to James Price Point to stop Woodside’s illegal destruction of country. Word was given that Woodside’s bulldozer was on its way and these 2 ladies have given the following statements:

Ali Batten
I am forced to take this stand as a way to oppose & draw national attention to the actions of Woodside & the WA government.
What they’re doing here in the Kimberley is unethical, unnecessary, & invasive in the extreme. Our community is distressed & already damaged by their presence, & campaigners have been traumatised & bullied. We have been shown no respect & have often been met with open contempt.

We are defending Country. It has been cared for & revered for tens of thousands of years. It holds ancestral sites & sites of cultural significance to local people, & is part of the Lurujarri songline. It is the habitat of endangered species of flora & fauna, & part of the last remaining wilderness areas on the planet.
In the 1950s I saw the dunes & coastal bushland of Nth NSW destroyed by a mining company. The minerals they extracted from this devastation were used in weaponry. Sixty years later I won’t remain passive & allow corporate interests to destroy the dunes & bushland of Walmadany, & turn it into a massive industrial site.
I’m 65 and I might have a few decades left – I’ll spend every day of that time defending the planet against political parties & corporations which have no respect for the beauty & fragility of our environment.

Julie Weguelin

I am 62yrs of age, a mother of 2, and a grandmother of 4.

I am a Broome resident with an association with Broome for over 25 years and a permanent resident for the past 10 years. I am a small business owner and a supporter of the Broome Community No Gas Campaign. There has been a great cost and loss to many but if we stand back and do nothing it will be a much greater loss. I am here as I believe this pristine area of the Kimberley is too precious to lose to Industrialisation.

Dinosaur track ways are proving to be unique in the world and should be preserved in their natural state for future generations. Song line and Indigenous heritage of the area has to be preserved. This unique area is host to many sea creatures .. turtles, whales etc which rely on this area for their breeding and feeding grounds.

Only 4% of the world today is pristine wilderness. If this project should go ahead, it will destroy even more of this last remaining pristine area for a short term gain by a few. This area has to be protected for everyone. As it is visited by peoples from all over the world for it’s uniqueness and easy access.

Broome will lose its amazing fresh water supply and have to rely on desalinated and recycled water due to the construction of the processing plant taking all the underground water supply. The construction will also create a 50km dead zone around the proposed port area.

Australia has the ability to be sustained by 100% renewable energy sources within the next ten years. All it takes is a commitment by the government.
The law is currently being broken by Drilling in the National Heritage listed inter-tidal zones.