Woodside headquarters evacuated by hoax gas leak over Burrup Hub's endangerment of culture, climate and workers
10.00 am Thursday AWST - Perth
Disrupt Burrup Hub have forced the evacuation of staff from Woodside headquarters in Perth by simulating a gas leak using harmless, non-toxic ‘stench gas’, a substance typically used on mine sites to sound the alarm about an emergency.
As Woodside workers safely exited the building, Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner Kristen Morrissey framed the evacuation using legal yellow smoke flares to represent the toxic emissions from Woodside’s Burrup Hub.
It comes after Woodside’s Pluto project, the latest expansion of their toxic Burrup Hub, was evacuated and shut down on Saturday following a large explosion that injured multiple workers at the plant and led to allegations of a Woodside cover-up by the workers’ union. Worksafe, the WA workplace safety regulator, travelled to the Burrup this week to investigate.
It follows the unplanned shutdown of construction at the Yara fertiliser plant, also part of the Burrup Hub, after a cultural heritage incident involving a construction vehicle in December. Last month on the Burrup, Perdaman removed sacred Murujuga rock art sites to build a fertiliser plant fed by gas from Woodside’s Pluto Project, just as Woodside themselves previously destroyed thousands of sacred sites to create earlier parts of the Burrup Hub.
Disrupt Burrup Hub will hold its own public meeting later today as the campaign expands and opens up to new recruits (link here)
The Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign demands no more industry on or off the Burrup with the focus now shifting to Woodside’s massive Browse Basin gas field 900km off the north-west coast of Western Australia.
If the new WA Premier Roger Cook allows Woodside to exploit the Browse Basin gas field, Browse will become the single largest addition to the Burrup Hub as it generates 6 billion tons of CO2 over its lifetime - Woodside are due to make Final Investment Decision on Browse later this year after Mark McGowan gave them the green light to destroy cultural heritage and climate targets during his curtailed stint as WA Premier.
Musician Kristen Morrissey, who used harmless, non-toxic stench gas and yellow smoke to evacuate Woodside’s Perth headquarters this morning, said:
“Today, I deployed non-toxic, non-flammable “stench gas” to shut down business as usual for Woodside and sound the alarm about the climate and cultural emergency they are enabling at the Burrup Hub.
“It continues the job we started at the Woodside AGM last month, using a harmless warning to evacuate people from potential harm. Woodside were right to exercise the precautionary principle and safely evacuate today, in contrast to their activities at the Burrup Hub which endangers culture, climate and their own workers.
“Woodside's Burrup Hub will produce 6 billion tonnes of C02 over its lifetime, and is already causing permanent damage to ancient, sacred Murujuga rock art. Within the past week, a large explosion at their Pluto gas plant also injured their own workers and led to a Worksafe investigation.
“Disrupt Burrup Hub is all that stands between Woodside and business as usual on the Burrup. The truth about Woodside’s Burrup Hub is leaking out and we will continue to smoke Woodside out until there is no more industry on or off the Burrup. Anyone seeking real political change in Western Australia should join us at our public meeting tonight as we explain how and why to Disrupt Burrup Hub.”
The Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia is known as Murujuga to traditional custodians, a deeply sacred place that contains the largest, oldest collection of Aboriginal rock art in the world. This priceless cultural treasure is currently nominated for UNESCO world heritage listing, but the sacred songlines and stories contained in these carvings are being damaged by emissions from the Burrup Hub and face total destruction within decades. Woodside has previously been responsible for the destruction of around 5,000 sacred rock art sites in the construction of earlier parts of its Burrup Hub mega-project, including the Karratha Gas Plant and Pluto LNG processing facility.
Woodside's Burrup Hub is the biggest new fossil fuel project in Australia. It consists of the Scarborough and Browse Basin gas fields, the Pluto Project processing plant, and other linked liquified natural gas (LNG) and fertiliser plants on the Burrup Peninsula in WA’s remote north-west Pilbara region. The Burrup Hub is projected to produce more than 6 billion tons of CO2 by 2070, making it four times larger than the Adani coal mine and one of the biggest carbon bombs in the world.
On January 19, Joana Partyka, a ceramic artist and illustrator from Perth, sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on the colonial masterpiece ‘Down on His Luck’ at the Art Gallery of WA. The protest was subsequently endorsed by most descendants of ‘Down on His Luck’ painter Frederick McCubbin. On February 13, punk musician Trent Rojahn coated the Woodside building with a fire extinguisher full of high-pressure yellow paint and sprayed the slogan ‘Disrupt Burrup Hub’ across the glass at the entrance to Woodside’s corporate headquarters. On Tuesday February 21, graphic designer and mum of two Tahlia Stolarski sprayed the Woodside logo six times in yellow paint on the front doors of WA Parliament.
On April 28, Gerard Mazza and Tahlia Stolarski were charged with Aggravated Burglary ting to evacuate the Woodside AGM in Perth using harmless stench gas and smoke flares. On May 3, environmental activist Violet CoCo, the first person jailed under repressive new police powers legislation in New South Wales, sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on the front of the Perth Police Centre in protest at the escalating police crackdown on climate protest in Western Australia.
