Western Australia’s environmental watchdog has waved through a new $850 million gas processing plant owned by Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, saying its effect on local flora and fauna and supporting ecosystems are negligible.
That assessment is infuriating local environmental groups, who have already called into question the cumulative impacts of the plant.
The Belisama gas project – named after a Celtic goddess of light and fire – will process 210 terajoules of gas a day from the Lockyer field, about 350km north of Perth, and will need a processing facility, underground pipelines, and pipes to connect to the gas grid about 100km north-west in Geraldton.
The state’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) says this operation would remove nearly 6 hectares of native vegetation from a footprint of 292 hectares, and deferred assessment of any clearing to the state’s mines and water departments.
In 2024, it decided an alternative plan for a processing plant at the Lockyer gas field also didn’t need EPA oversight.
