“Burrup Hub Disrupted” - Campaigners blockade all access to Australia’s largest fossil fuel project to block Woodside expansion
Media alert: “Burrup Hub Disrupted” - Campaigners blockade all access to Australia’s largest fossil fuel project to block Woodside expansion
Friday 12 July 5am AWST - Murujuga
For immediate release
A Disrupt Burrup Hub school student and school teacher have blocked the only road in to Woodside’s Burrup Hub this morning by chaining themselves to concrete barrels inside an SUV and boat parked across Burrup Road at approximately 4.00am AWST. Police are on the scene.
The protest from Emma, a 17 year old high school student, and Petrina Harley, a schoolteacher who previously blockaded Burrup Rd in 2021, is the culmination of an escalating campaign to disrupt Woodside’s Burrup Hub from destroying sacred Murujuga rock art and emitting 6 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere until 2070.
The blockade comes as state and federal governments are considering applications for a 50 year extension to Woodside’s ageing Burrup Hub gas plant and a fresh application to exploit the Browse gas field off the Kimberley coast, the largest gas field in Australia, and pipe the gas almost 1000kms through protected marine ecosystems to export from the Burrup Hub.
The Browse gas field threatens to collapse the fragile Scott Reef, the only nesting habitat for endangered sea turtles, and to interrupt whale migration routes.
Meanwhile, emissions from Woodside’s Burrup Hub will destroy not just Australia’s global carbon commitments under the Paris Agreement but also recklessly endanger sacred Murujuga rock art, which Woodside has already destroyed thousands of sites in constructing previous parts the Burrup Hub.
The Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners have blocked Burrup Rd, the only access in to Woodside’s Burrup Hub, just after the turn-off the Karratha-Dampier Highway at the entrance to the Murujuga Peninsula, thereby also blockading all access to the ongoing construction of Woodside’s Pluto 2 gas processing plant and the Perdaman fertiliser plant. A private service road allows workers to leave Woodside’s Burrup Hub.
It comes as research shows that Woodside’s Burrup Hub threatens to diminish WA’s domestic gas supply by exporting nearly all of the gas Woodside produces offshore to foreign companies that pay almost no Australian royalties.
Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner Emma, a 17 year old high school student, said this morning:
“Today Disrupt Burrup Hub have blocked the only road into Woodside’s Burrup Hub which is destroying my future. Woodside’s Burrup Hub will emit 6 billion tonnes of CO2 in my lifetime and become the largest fossil fuel project in the Southern Hemisphere. The government is currently considering plans to extend the Burrup Hub out til 2070 and approve Browse, the largest gas field in Australia. This will not only destroy our climate, it will cause the stunning Scott Reef to subside and wreck the only habitat for endanger turtles and other sea life. Browse Gas will disrupt precious whale migration routes, so today I’m disrupting Woodside’s Burrup Hub to block Browse. Our systems are responsible for climate destruction and ecological collapse, and direct action is the only way to adequately respond to the crisis we are facing.”
Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner Petrina Harley, a school teacher who previously blockaded Burrup Rd in 2021, said this morning:
“I’m here at Woodside’s Burrup Hub to stop the largest fossil fuel project in Australia. This is a safe, sensible, proportionate response to an emergency unfolding at Woodside’s Burrup Hub. Woodside are spewing toxic emissions all over this sacred ancient rock art all around me, and Woodside are pumping 6 billion tonnes of CO2 into our atmosphere. The gas plants behind me are the most polluting in the Southern Hemisphere and Woodside are asking the government to extend them for another 50 years. We have disrupted Burrup Hub to block Browse and stop state and federal government giving Woodside a free ride.”
A Disrupt Burrup Hub spokesperson said this morning:
“There is one road in and out of Woodside’s Burrup Hub - this isn’t hard, anyone can do it.”
