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Sustainability & Environment
93 posts
Crocodile count raises concerns about swimming holes
As Australians count down to the new year, a different count has clicked over in the Northern Territory. Park rangers have removed 265 crocodiles from territory's waterways in 2024, a slight decrease from 272 in 2023. However, the locations of the crocodiles over the past year has raised concerns about where the apex predator is being found. Increased efforts have resulted in a three-fold increase in the number of crocodiles removed near popular swimming holes at Litchfield National Park after a tourist was bitten at Wangi Falls in 2023. The NT government's annual croc count shows 21 of the reptiles…
Santos gets final tick for flagship Barossa gas project
After years of delays and fervent opposition from environment groups, Santos has cleared the final hurdle for its multibillion-dollar Barossa gas project. First gas on the $5.8 billion mega-project, about 285km north-northwest off the coast of Darwin, is expected in coming months after offshore oil and gas regulator NOPSEMA gave the project its final regulatory approval on Tuesday. The Adelaide-based company will now be able to hook up a floating production storage and offloading vessel, allowing gas to be transported from the project's six wells to processing facilities. Pipeline work on the controversial project was halted in late 2022 after a court…
‘Arrogance’: Indigenous ire at sacred sites amendments
Fast-tracked amendments to sacred sites legislation have been slammed by traditional owners and the authority which safeguards them. The Northern Territory government has introduced changes to the Sacred Sites Act it says will provide "simpler and streamlined" approval processes for development. Certificates issued by the territory's independent Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority would be transferable under the amendments. NT Environment Minister Joshua Burgoyne says the changes are designed make the process more "accessible, efficient, and protective of sacred sites". The authority, which is responsible for overseeing the safeguarding of NT sacred sites, has raised concerns about the lack of consultation and…
Explosion in croc numbers triggers feral feast fallout
Northern Australia's massive crocodile population is munching its way through huge numbers of feral pigs, with the apex predator's changing diet having a significant impact on the environment. Since they were protected in 1971, croc numbers in the Top End have exploded 25-fold from one every five kilometres of river to more than five per kilometre. In terms of biomass, or the collective bulk, of the largest and some would argue most misunderstood reptile on the planet, that represents a whopping increase from less than 10kg per kilometre to 400kg. Researchers have studied data from eight Northern Territory river systems…
NT:Connection to Country a journey from canoe to dinghy
A 250km journey across the coast of Arnhem Land once took days in a dugout canoe, but is now a matter of hours in a motorised boat. Traditional owner and elder Samuel Gulwa remembers journeying in a dugout canoe, surrounded by family and elders, between the communities of Maningrida where he lives, and Warruwi on Goulburn Island. It was during these trips, he was introduced to important places across the coastline. "When we were travelling with the canoe, we used to stop and camp," Mr Gulwa said. "My mother, she used to tell us, 'Come on you boys, make a…
Connection to Country a journey from canoe to dinghy
A 250km journey across the coast of Arnhem Land once took days in a dugout canoe, but is now a matter of hours in a motorised boat. Traditional owner and elder Samuel Gulwa remembers journeying in a dugout canoe, surrounded by family and elders, between the communities of Maningrida where he lives, and Warruwi on Goulburn Island. It was during these trips, he was introduced to important places across the coastline. "When we were travelling with the canoe, we used to stop and camp," Mr Gulwa said. "My mother, she used to tell us, 'Come on you boys, make a…
‘A love story’: rebuilding Darwin after Tracy
For two surviving sisters, the ongoing grief was evident, as a new memorial dedicated to those who died in Cyclone Tracy was unveiled in Darwin. Boxing Day marked the moment many families emerged from the rubble after the Northern Territory city was almost wiped off the map by Australia's most destructive cyclone. For Stephanie Brown, the loss of her baby sister fifty years on was still raw. On Wednesday, she reached out her hand and rubbed it against the stainless steel plaque that read Geraldine Elizabeth Brown. She was among hundreds gathered on a cool wet season morning in Darwin…
Darwin still marked by Cyclone Tracy, 50 years on
Soaring on monsoonal winds their arrival was an alarm. For the Tiwi people the sight of the frigatebirds was the first sign a cyclone was brewing off the coast of Darwin in 1974, but no one predicted the scale of destruction that would hit that Christmas Day. Cyclone Tracy displaced 36,000 people and officially claimed 66 lives, although others were lost in the aftermath of the devastation. Museum Art Gallery Northern Territory history curator Jared Archibald said Cyclone Tracy "put Darwin on the map". The curator of the revamped 'Remembering 50 years of Cyclone Tracy' said it was considered one…
Water trigger laws used in court bid to block fracking
In a landmark case activists are taking a US-based gas company to the Federal Court under Labor's water trigger laws. Lock the Gate Alliance has filed a legal challenge against Tamboran B2 Pty Ltd over its plans to frack 15 gas wells in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin, near the town of Daly Waters. It will be the first legal challenge under the water trigger legislation passed by federal parliament in 2023. An amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Act requires Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to consider the impact of large coal mining and coal seam gas…
Environmental lawyers ordered to pay $9m to Santos
An environment litigation group representing Tiwi Islanders who failed to stop a gas pipeline being built through their sea country has been ordered to pay Santos more than $9 million. The Federal Court previously dismissed a challenge launched by Jikilaruwu traditional owner Simon Munkara to the oil and gas company's 262-kilometre Barossa gas export pipeline planned for the Timor Sea. Santos pursued The Environmental Defenders Office for costs over the dispute, with a court order issued on Thursday showing the parties agreed on a sum of $9,042,093.05. EDO chief executive David Morris said the firm would pay Santos. "After careful…