Protest movement swells as Premier green-lights fracking

The state government announced on Tuesday it would lift a moratorium on gas fracking in the Kimberley, Pilbara and Mid West of Western Australia on the grounds that the risks to people and environment were manageable and that it could not turn its back on industry.

A protest in Broome on Monday.

The Premier said the moratorium would only be lifted on existing petroleum titles, that landowners and traditional owners would get veto rights, and royalties would go into a fund for renewable energy.

Read the story by Emma Young and Nathan Hondros  from WAToday - “Protest movement swells as Premier green-lights fracking.”

Coral bleaching badly affected reefs of Kimberley, study finds

Up to 80% of coral in inshore reefs in the Kimberley was bleached during the global mass bleaching event that also affected 93% of the Great Barrier Reef in the summer of 2016-2016, according to new research.

Up to 80% of corals in inshore reefs in the Kimberley
were bleached in the 2016 El Niño heatwave. 

Led by scientists from the University of Western Australia and published in Scientific Reports this week, the research found between 57% and 80% of corals in the Kimberley, particularly at Montgomery Reef, the largest inshore coral reef in Australia, were bleached in April 2016.

About 29% of the coral at Rottnest, off the coast of Perth, was also bleached during the 2015-2016 summer. The world heritage listed Ningaloo reef and a reef further south, at Bremer Bay, were not affected.

It is the first time the Kimberley’s famously tough inshore coral reefs have been affected by a mass bleaching event and the first time a reef along the Western Australian coastline has been severely affected by a bleaching event triggered by an El Niño heatwave.

Read Calla Wahlquist’s story on The Guardian - “Coral bleaching badly affected reefs of Kimberley, study finds.”

Irrigation plans for Kimberley's Gogo Station facing green wall of opposition

Environmental groups have launched a campaign against a proposed irrigation development on Gogo Station in the Kimberley, claiming the project could do irreversible damage to the Fitzroy River.

Gogo Station wants to expand its irrigated
fodder operation in the Kimberley.

Gogo is planning to use floodwater from a tributary known as Blue Bush Creek, to grow around 5,000 hectares of fodder crops for its cattle, and is currently seeking the necessary approvals from the State Government.

The campaign against the proposal, led by the Broome-based Environs Kimberley, says Gogo's plan to draw water into large storage dams makes no sense and contradicts government plans to create the Fitzroy River National Park.

Environs Kimberley's Jason Fowler said it was a big project that posed a major risk to the environment.

Read the ABC News Rural story - “Irrigation plans for Kimberley's Gogo Station facing green wall of opposition.”

Wet season turning into one of the biggest on record for northern WA

Fitzroy Crossing bridge in the Kimberley.

After several big rain events in January, the wet season is quickly turning into one of the best on record for many parts of Western Australia's north.

Kununurra in the Kimberley had its wettest January on record, receiving just under 600 millimetres, while Fitzroy Crossing's rainfall total of 739.8 millimetres between October 1 - January 31, is the highest the town's received since records started in 1893.

A tropical low which swept across the north last week failed to turn into a cyclone, but delivered steady rain to the Kimberley and parts of the Pilbara and Gascoyne.

Read the ABC Rural story by Matt Brann - “Wet season turning into one of the biggest on record for northern WA.”