Vikas Rambal’s $6b fertiliser build Project Ceres fends off latest rock art battle at Burrup Peninsula

WA’s Environment Minister has discarded an objection made against Perdaman’s $6 billion fertiliser manufacturing plant that had claimed there were insufficient protections in place for Indigenous rock art. The failed challenge against a Department of Water and Environment works approval was brought by Friends of Australian Rock Art and Murujuga traditional custodian Raelene Cooper via the Office of the Appeals Convenor in June. It is the latest objection in a politically contentious battle over the extent of the environmental and heritage damage caused by major gas and chemical manufacturing projects, namely Perdaman’s Project Ceres, Woodside Energy’s North West Shelf and Yara Australia’s fertiliser plant, located on the Burrup Peninsula. The growing industrial development area is also home to UNESCO-recognised petroglyphs recorded as being thousands of years old. Woodside Energy and the Federal Government are still trying to pin down the details of conditions attached to environmental approval granted for a 45-year extension to the ageing Karratha gas facility in May. And a Section 10 application, lodged three years ago by Ms Cooper, seeking to have the land protected on heritage grounds is still yet to be accepted or rejected by the Federal Government. A Federal Court Judge last month knocked back Ms Cooper’s push for a hard deadline on Minister Murray Watt’s Section 10 decision on the grounds it was “imminent”. Project Ceres has State and Federal environmental approval and is about 60 per cent of the way through construction. With expected yearly urea output of 2 million tonnes, it’s touted to be the largest fertiliser development in the country and has received about $574 million in Government support. The development will be convert natural gas from Woodside’s Scarborough project. A spokeswoman for Perdaman, led by WA billionaire Vikas Rambal, told The West Australian the business had “sufficient measure” to manage risks to rock art “if any”. Friends of Australian Rock Art and Ms Cooper had claimed that a crushing and screening plant Perdaman needs to build to process earthworks at the site had not been properly assessed. Among their concerns was that rock art could be inadvertently collected and crushed as part of the clearing process, or be contaminated by dust and noise emissions. While the Appeals Convenor determined there would be sufficient safeguards with marked out “no go zones” in the area, as well as dust suppression methods in place — it agreed there needed to be a “precautionary approach” in new conditions applied to new projects near rock art. Minister Matthew Swinbourn upheld the Appeal Convenor’s determination that “DWER adequately and appropriately assessed the application and that the conditions are adequate to control risk.” Despite the delays in securing permits to start building the port infrastructure, a spokeswoman for the project affirmed Project Ceres was still on track to be finished by the second half of 2027.