Alternative hub site ignored: leaders

Clearing of the planned gas hub site at James Price Point is underway, but Aboriginal leaders say Port Hedland is a ready-and-waiting alternative which is being ignored.

For more than a month protesters have maintained a road block near James Price Point north of Broome, where a Woodside Petroleum-led joint venture plans to build a $30 billion gas precinct.

“We’re not saying no to gas, we’re saying yes to the alternatives,” Nyikina Traditional Owner Dr Anne Poelina said.

She said the unused hot-briquetted iron facility at Boodarie was a realistic option for bringing oil and gas from Browse Basin onshore.

Pilbara MLA Tom Stephens said Port Hedland was a natural option that had been overlooked.

"We have in Port Hedland a community that is very used to industrial development and where industrial development of this sort could not impact adversely on our current conservation values,” Mr Stephens said.

The State Government said disadvantages of a Pilbara location included a distance of more than 800km from the Browse Basin, native title and other heritage constraints and a lack of land with sufficient elevation close to the coast.

But Mr Stephens said the cost of delays in the Kimberley caused by opposition would produce much higher costs.

The Hedland gas hub proposal was supported by the Town of Port Hedland, the Port Hedland Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Port Hedland Port Authority.

A Federal Government analysis of the feasibility of locations outside the Kimberley was released in January 2009 and concluded a greenfield LNG processing plant at Port Hedland was unlikely to be economically viable.

However, Environs Kimberley director Martin Pritchard said a report by JP Morgan, one of the largest global investment advice firms, showed piping gas to the Pilbara would be more cost effective than processing in the Kimberley.