Party announces it will campaign for application to be made to Unesco in bid to stop drilling

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Greens have launched a campaign to give the Great Australian Bight world heritage protection – but such a move would need the government’s support.



The party announced on Wednesday it would campaign for an application to be made to the Unesco to place the bight on the world heritage list.

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The bight has been described by the Wilderness Society as a “place of unparalleled natural beauty”, with more than 36 species of whales and dolphins, and more marine diversity than the Great Barrier Reef.

But environmentalists fear it remains under threat from multinational companies seeking to extract resources from the giant oil basin below.

BP withdrew its plans to drill in October 2016 but said the bight remained a potential site for drilling.

Secret modelling conducted by BP showed a major oil spill there would pollute up to 750km of beaches and shoreline, and documents also showed the company thought its drilling might affect the migration of the endangered southern right whale.

The Greens’ push for heritage listing would give the bight added protection.

“World heritage listing is a way to recognise, celebrate and protect all that’s great about the bight,” the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said. “That’s good for tourism, good for jobs, good for the bight and good for the state.

“There is no social licence for oil and gas drilling in the Great Australian Bight and the Labor and Liberal parties need to support its long-term protection.”

Hanson-Young said the listing could be achieved by 2020 if there was sufficient “political will”.

Applications to Unesco for heritage listing are long and arduous. Critically, they require the support of the state and federal governments.

BP plan to drill in Great Australian Bight risked 750km oil spill, documents show Read more

A spokesman for the environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, said the usual process for such a listing would begin with the state government.

“The normal process for World Heritage Listing is for the relevant state government to put to the Commonwealth a proposal for listing,” he said.

“Once a state government puts forward a potential listing it would be considered by the Commonwealth.”



The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority is considering a proposal to carry out oil and gas exploration in the bight at locations within 100km of Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island.

Two big oil companies have now withdrawn plans to drill in the bight. Chevron became the second in October last year, exactly a year after BP abandoned its plan.

BP still owns two of the four offshore leases and passed the other two to Statoil last year. Statoil intends to drill an exploratory well at one site by October 2019.



The company is developing an environmental plan to submit to the management authority, which would be subject to consultation.

The Wilderness Society’s South Australia director, Peter Owen, said most of the significant areas of the Bight were covered by Commonwealth Marine parks, but that “there is no doubt the area justifies the highest protection, which is World Heritage status’’.

