Here in the South West we don’t just live near the water – our coastlines and rivers are some of the most beautiful in the world – we live on it.
Beneath us is a vast body of fresh water, about 1000 cubic kilometres of it, stretching from just below Geraldton to the south coast.
A cubic kilometre is equal to 1000 gigalitres if that means anything to you. It may be easier to just think of it as an awful lot of water which, in a dry country like ours, is an awful lot of blessing.
This is the Yarragadee Aquifer, located hundreds of metres below the ground. To give you an idea of its size, it is two kilometres thick in some places.
Drill down and before you hit gas or oil or whatever other valuable resource you may be looking for, you have to pass through the most valuable resource of all: water.
Anyone driving any distance on Saturday along major roads throughout the country would have seen people by the side of the road holding yellow triangular signs saying “Lock the Gate”. They were protesting plans for unconventional gas exploration and extraction and that mining companies would be able to conduct this exploration on private land despite any objection from owners. These people deserve our thanks.
There are obvious and enormous ecological and environmental risks involved with fracking, as hydraulic fracturing has come to be called, and it is extremely hard to see the sense in it in the South West, or anywhere for that matter.
Apart from the environmental damage that can occur, there seems to be little economic benefit. A study released in 2014 by the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations found that fracking in the United States has had almost no impact on economic growth and that the benefits in Europe would be negligible.
The Greens have recently released revised numbers which show that Australia could move to renewable energy by 2029 for less than the cost of business as usual.
Think about that: that doing the right thing could be even anywhere near cheaper than continuing to burn fossil fuels should make us seriously rethink outdated and dangerous policies.
At the local level, the economics take an even more practical turn when we consider that much of what the South West has to offer – world-class tourism, amazing food, a unique biodiversity richer than most other places on the planet – relies on a clean and safe environment.
Covering the protests on Saturday I met many committed and passionate people, but one woman’s comments stood out because they show so clearly what’s at stake.
Property developer Chantel Gelmi, who is building 60 homes in the shire of Harvey, said “My business is based on the South West being a clean and safe place to live. As an investor in the local area of Harvey, I’m very concerned that Harvey is going to be diminished significantly.
“If there are non-conventional gas mines around the Harvey area, I just won’t be investing.
“If this was to come in, it may bring a small amount of jobs, considering that mining only accounts for two per cent of jobs in the entire country, but given that we would lose so much of the agriculture, and in my recent studies as a developer I’ve found that about 50 per cent of this area, the Harvey shire, people’s income is from agriculture, that could potentially reduce the amount of overall jobs, not to mention the income that local businesses are making off being in such a pristine area.”
What’s true for Harvey is certainly true for much of the South West, one of the world’s premium food and wine producing regions.
We live in a country with more than its fair share of free energy sources. The sun shines brightly on us and the wind blows hard and as battery technology improves, the grid as we know it will soon be a relic of the past.
Fracking is a dangerous and nonsensical thing to pursue. Far better options await.
– Jem Hedley
