Community consultation in Kalbarri – December 2024

The Murchison Green Hydrogen (MGH) Project team held community consultation sessions in Kalbarri during the first week of December 2024.

These consultation sessions provided community members with the opportunity to have more time directly with MGH representatives to ask questions, acquire a deeper understanding about the project and to provide their comments and feedback.

The MGH team spoke with a wide range of community members, who provided different perspectives and helpful insights regarding the Project.
A brief summary of the engagement is included below:

Topics of recurring community interest

Community members expressed interest regarding many aspects of the Project’s design, development, processes, and opportunities for Kalbarri’s future.

Some particular areas of recurring interest included:

Where will the Project be sourcing water from for construction? 

The Project team is exploring two options for short-term sourcing of the initial water requirements for construction: (1) Groundwater abstraction; and (2) Desalinated sea water.

The Project is planning to undertake hydro-geological surveys in 2025 to assess the availability and quality of ground water on Murchison House Station for construction activities. Any use of water by the Project will not affect Kalbarri’s drinking water supply.

Any ground water extraction for the Project will be subject to environmental studies and regulatory approvals. In Western Australia, water licences are required for the abstraction of groundwater. The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) actively manages the State’s water resources by: defining the volume of water available for licensing purposes from a particular resource and issuing licences under the Rights in Water and Irrigation Act 1914 (RiWI Act) for various activities.

The second option being considered for construction water is the use of a temporary desalination plant which would be significantly smaller than the desalination plant which will later be constructed for operations.

Where will the workforce be living?

The construction workforce will be housed on Murchison House Station in a construction camp.

The location of the workforce for ongoing operations is still being determined, and the Project team will be liaising with stakeholders before a final decision is made.

Will there be jobs and/or training for local people?

The Project will provide a wide range of jobs during construction and operations, from highly skilled to unskilled, and be prioritising local jobs where possible. MGH is working with TAFE and other education institutions to facilitate training programs to allow local workers to acquire the technical skills needed for the Project.

However, we also acknowledge there are some technologies and specialised roles which will require labour to be procured from locations outside the region, including from overseas.

MGH is currently developing a Jobs Guide to provide further information on the types of jobs and their associated qualifications needed for both the construction and operations of the Project. This will be made available in 2025.

Will residents of Kalbarri be able to smell ammonia from the production plant?

Planned and unplanned releases of ammonia to the atmosphere are routed to flare in order to combust the ammonia prior to release and avoid odours from the plant. The PtA plant is located ~38km from Kalbarri, and air emission studies across this distance indicate that there will be no odours reaching Kalbarri from the Project.

Air emission studies and modelling are being finalised and the results will be included in the Environmental Review Document.

What will be the impact on fauna?

Baseline environmental surveys of terrestrial fauna have been completed and we are now in the process of refining elements of the Project according to the Mitigation Hierarchy.

This Hierarchy is as follows (in decreasing order of strategy preference):
i) Avoid environmental impacts.
ii) Minimise environmental impacts
iii) Rehabilitate cleared areas
iv) Offset packages to reduce any significant residual impacts to an acceptable level.

For example, the Project has conducted extensive surveys to map the location of malleefowl mounds across the site of the solar farm. These mounds have been mapped in order to redesign the layout of the solar panels and avoid or minimise impact.

What would be the impact of a potential ammonia leak into the ocean?

All facilities for the production, storage and transportation of hydrogen and ammonia will be designed and operated in line with Australian standards, which are among the strictest in the world from a safety perspective. These standards incorporate many decades of learning from the operation of ammonia facilities and similar marine export industries (e.g., LNG). Facilities will also be regulated by the State safety regulator, the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.

Additionally, the Project is conducting ammonia leak modelling and environmental investigations to determine the nature and area of impact in the highly unlikely event of an unplanned ammonia release. The results of these studies will be made available in the Environmental Review Document.

What is the decommissioning timeline and process?

Decommissioning of wind turbine and solar farm components is a focus of significant research and development of technology suppliers in the renewables sector, as it a key area of interest and concern for community members and developers alike.

MGH is committed to working with government agencies, technology suppliers, and decommissioning and recycling experts to develop and implement decommissioning and recycling standards and practices for this emerging industry. The Project will be producing a closure, decommissioning and rehabilitation plan that will see infrastructure removed from Murchison House Station and rehabilitation of areas back to their natural state.

If you were unable to attend a community consultation session but would like to speak to a member of the MGH Project team, contact us at 1800 921 515 or by emailing info@murchisonrenewables.com.au