Concert for the Kimberley with Bob Brown, John Butler, Missy Higgins, Ballpark Music + more special guests

Sunday 24th February 1.30pm – 6.30pm, Fremantle Esplanade, Fremantle WA

Click here to join the Facebook event! 

Bob Brown on Operation Kimberley Miinimbi
photo: Sea Shepherd AustraliaSea Shepherd Director Bob Brown will stand alongside The Wilderness Society (TWS) and Australian music icons John Butler Trio, Missy Higgins (acoustic), Ball Park Music and other special guests at the Concert for the Kimberley on Sunday 24^thFebruary in Fremantle, West Australia. Mc’d by ABC Television and radio personality Peter Rowsthorn the free, open-air concert is a protest against the proposed gas hub development at James Price Point on The Kimberley Coast.

An invitation has also been extended to West Australian Premier Colin Barnett, Labor Leader Mark McGowan and other party representatives and independents to take this opportunity to state their views on the proposed development.

The spectacular wilderness of the Kimberley’s James Price Point is under threat by oil and gas giants Woodside, Shell, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and Mitsui who, with the backing of the West Australian government and Premier Barnett, plan to build Australia’s biggest industrial development at the site.

Sea Shepherd Australia (SSAU) is actively opposed to the development at James Price Point. In July 2012, at the invitation of the Goolarabooloo people of the Kimberley region, SSAU launched Operation Kimberley Miinimbi (OKM) with the over-arching aim to halt the proposed development of the region. In September 2012, SSAU and TWS joined forces as hundreds gathered by the SSS Steve Irwin at Circular Quay in Sydney to oppose the gas hub in the Rally for the Kimberley Whales, which was followed by a march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  SSAU is proud to once again stand alongside TWS, John Butler and Missy Higgins on this critical issue.

The Kimberley Coast is classed in the top 4% of the least untouched marine environments in the world alongside the Arctic and Antarctic oceans. Its pristine waters are home to the world’s largest humpback whale nursery and threatened dolphins, sea turtles and dugongs. The region is also a significant Indigenous heritage site, is home to the longest chain of dinosaur footprints on the planet (some of the largest lie directly at the proposed site) and has known populations of endangered Bilby. The proposed gas hub is a threat to both the history and the future of this veneered region.

Despite the fact that more cost effective and functional sites for the gas hub exist outside of the Kimberley region, to date Premier Barnett has not adequately explored these as viable alternatives for the development.

“Like Tasmania’s Robin Gray and the Franklin River, Colin Barnett can neither see the heritage value of the Kimberley Coast nor hear the public anger rising. He has a win/win option for the gas factory and he should take it,” said Bob Brown.

“To think of industrialising this truly special region in order to exploit a resource which is more profitable and practical to process somewhere else seems absolutely ludicrous,” said Butler.

“I’m happy to help in any way. This is such an important issue, about a place very dear to my heart. Australians deserve to know that one of our great wilderness’ is in serious danger of being destroyed forever,” said Missy Higgins.

Join Bob Brown, Sea Shepherd and The Wilderness Society and stand up for the Kimberley!

Captain of the SSS Steve Irwin during OKM, Mal Holland, with John Butler
photo: Tim Watters/Sea Shepherd Australia

The outlay of the proposed gas site at James Price Point
photo: Eliza Muirhead/Sea Shepherd Australia

A Kimberley whale greets the SSS Steve Irwin
photo: Tim Watters/Sea Shepherd Australia

Whale and calf off JPP 
photo: Eliza Muirhead/Sea Shepherd Australia