The Government’s planned Westport container port

The draft design image on the Westport website shows the plans for the new container port in Kwinana, which includes a 10km-long, 18-metre deep shipping channel through the Sound’s heart that will be needed to allow the mega-tankers to get in and out of the port.

In November 2023, the Government announced its final design and location of the port on land adjacent to Anketell Road in Kwinana.

The location was hardly surprising – in 2020 the WA Labor Government allocated $400 million in the 2020/21 budget for strategic land acquisition and upgrades to Thomas and Anketell Roads in Kwinana as part of this new port – dredging costs and marine environmental impacts were estimated to be lower than most other options. This was partly based on expert advice to Westport that the location did not need to include a breakwater that can have serious environmental consequences.

However, when the port design was announced in November 2023, there was a nasty surprise –  despite earlier claims by Westport to the contrary – the port design now includes a 2km-long breakwater!

Once again this has brought into question whether Cockburn Sound is indeed the best place in which to dump a sprawling mega port – but realistically was the Government ever going to consider any other option after dropping $400 mill of taxpayer’s hard-earned dollars on land acquisition in Kwinana for the port back in 2020?

Some more cynical commentators might conclude that the Government never intended to build the port anywhere else.

The big questions that Westport have STILL failed to answer

You would think that the Government would have already researched and developed a clear understanding of the impacts a new port and the new shipping channel will have on the Sound’s environment and its waters.

Well, think again.

Here are several big, critical questions that are yet to be answered by Westport.

A $13.5 million science program has been set up by the Government to answer some of the above questions – or so we have been told. The program involves more than 100 scientists working across 30 projects, looking at ecosystem modelling, water and sediment quality, fisheries and aquatic resources, hydrodynamic modelling, social values, noise and impacts on apex predators and iconic species.

Westport claims information collected through the science program will contribute to its business case, as well as inform its mitigation strategy and environmental impact assessment.

However, this in of itself raises another big question mark – some of the results of the projects under the program will only be available after the design for the port has been finalised. That doesn’t seem to make much sense.

The stakes are too high for these projects not to be done properly and Save Cockburn Sound demands the Government makes the results of this program publicly available as soon as possible. We, the local community, have a right to know – the Sound belongs to us as the West Australian public after all!

Quite a few things need to happen before works can begin on the port with dredging due to commence in 2027 – one of the key things being the Public Environmental Review in 2025 when we and the wider community will have our opportunity to express our serious concerns about the impact of Westport on the Sound.

Once again Westport hasn’t been too forthcoming in providing a project timeline and once again we are left asking the question “Why are they so reluctant to provide key information about this hugely significant project?”

However, when Westport was approached in May last year, they did provide this:

That Public Environmental Review is going to be very important as it’s when the community can have its say on the proposed development and it’s one of our best chances to save the Sound from Westport’s potential damaging impacts.

Save Cockburn Sound will have much more to say about how we can make sure we all get our voices heard loud and clear on this nearer the time.