“I think it’s always a dangerous practice to say I will or won't do a certain thing”
Meg O’Neill, CEO, Woodside Energy, October 2022.
We are a dozen or so songs into Midnight Oil’s last ever live concert in Perth and the final settling notes and beats of one of the band’s iconic anthems are fading out. I’m standing in the crowd at the RAC Arena looking up at the stage, close-ish but not in the front ranks. Around me, thousands of people, most seated in the steepling stands, contribute to an expectant, impatient low clamour of whistles, cheers, claps and shouts, as each experiences the familiar punctuated anticipation of the rock concert; wondering which track will be up next.
The white stage lighting begins to smudge red, like blood in the air. Then everything goes black for a few seconds before the back screen abruptly lights up in stop-sign crimson, emblazoned with the pale silhouette of a hand holding the earth on fire, accompanied by bold white text:
Woodside Ecocide
There is a collective drawing of breath: the Oils are about to have a go at Woodside Energy, one of the most politically and economically powerful actors in Western Australia, and among the ten largest oil and gas companies on earth.
There is a collective drawing of breath: the Oils are about to have a go at Woodside Energy.
Woodside is pushing ahead with the Burrup Hub, the worst climate-polluting infrastructure proposed anywhere in the nation. This monstrous gas export project will be located off the North West coast of WA, in a locus of marine parks and whale migration routes, home to some of Australia’s most dazzling ocean wildlife.
Woodside plans to open two new gas drilling sites, Scarborough and Browse, and extend the life of its hulking North West Shelf processing plant all the way through to the 2070s. This activity would
