Unfortunately, the construction of one LNG plant is likely to act as a nucleus for the construction of other industrial complexes (refineries, additional LNG plants, support industries for oil/gas industry etc) in Broome. This has already happened on other parts of the WA coastline such as Port Hedland (south of Broome) and Kwinana (south of Perth), where the establishment of one refinery led to the establishment of others, initially to service the first mining and oil booms of the late 1960s/1970s. There are allegedly vast untapped reserves of oil and LNG off the north-west coastline. The establishment of LNG plants and oil refineries in Broome has the likely added knock-on effect of opening up these offshore resources for exploitation and providing added legitimacy to establishing new terrestrial mines (minerals) in the Kimberleys (there are several large proposals on the table at the moment). In my mind, that is the potential tipping point for major environmental damage to occur. There is already intense pressure from oil and gas companies to explore for and/or open up oil and/or gas fields right along the WA coastline, as far as I’m aware as far south as Margaret River (south of Perth). So we are talking about large-scale operations in WA which in the long-term could lead to several industrial centres being established along the WA coastline.
Stephen Ambrose Ryde NSW