German industrial giant dumps Exmouth Gulf project after fierce fight

Environmental advocates are ecstatic at a major win in their decades-long struggle to prevent the industrialisation of Exmouth Gulf after a German multinational withdrew plans for a massive and controversial saltworks project.

Protect Ningaloo, part of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, led the campaign against the saltworks, claiming it would have damaged a nationally listed wetland and polluted the nursery area for the World Heritage listed Ningaloo reef.

They now say governments must act to ensure Exmouth Gulf is protected from future industrial projects.

German corporation K+S on Thursday announced it was dumping the Ashburton Salt project, which has been planned for nearly a decade and was undergoing public environmental assessment by the state’s Environmental Protection Authority.

K+S Salt Australia managing director Gerrit Gödecke said that the parent company’s changing “worldwide strategic direction” was behind the decision and maintained his confidence that the project could have been “one of the world’s most environmentally sound solar salt projects.”

He said the company had spent a great deal of time and resources getting to understand the community and the environment.

“I am disappointed … the people of Onslow and the Thalanyji People, Traditional Owners … will not realise the significant benefits the project would have brought,” he said.

The Buurabalayji Thalanyji Aboriginal Corporation was contacted for comment.

Protect Ningaloo publicly described the project footprint as 52 times the size of Perth’s Kings Park.

Australian Marine Conservation Society chief executive Paul Gamblin said the multi-year campaign, which included more than 17,000 public emails to WA’s environment minister, billboards and social media campaigns in Germany, and scientific analysis of the proposal, had been gruelling.

“To the scientists, the filmmakers, the submission-writers, the volunteer campaigners and key supporters … everyone who saw a better way for this vital part of the Exmouth Gulf-Ningaloo ecosystem, we hope you cherish this moment,” he said.

“K+S has done the right thing … Exmouth Gulf is obviously no place for industrial development.”

He said the era of industrial proposals for Exmouth Gulf causing deep concern in the community, which have also included a now-dumped oil and gas pipeline facility, and the Gascoyne Gateway port and dredging proposal which remains active with plans lodged with the Environmental Protection Authority, must now come to an end.

The state is currently considering EPA advice in 2021 that it protect the Qualing Pool area, which is adjacent to the port proposal area, and potentially overlapping depending on how the government draws the boundaries for the Class A reserve.

The gulf supports threatened species such as dugongs, sawfish, turtles and rays, as well as hundreds of species of fish, shorebirds and corals all reliant on its carbon-soaking mangroves and seagrass meadows.

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