A mother and her calf breach along Australia's Kimberley coast (Photo courtesy Kimberley Whale Watching)
As I write the headline for this article, the unmistakable shape of a whale’s pectoral fin rises and falls on the turquoise ocean surface near Broome, Western Australia. I’m about to write about humpbacks, so this comes as no real surprise. With time to notice, these kinds of coincidences are occurring with growing frequency on my personal Tour de Oz.
Most people don’t realise this remote stretch of coastline — part of the huge northern Australian region known as the Kimberley — supports the largest population of humpback whales in the world.
The giant cetaceans mate and breed here every winter. Then, calves at their sides, they migrate thousands of kilometres along Western Australia to Antarctica, there to feast on summer krill and gather energy for their return journey.
I’ve felt an affinity for whales since I was a child, and camping on the Kimberley coast to watch humpbacks blow and breach, undisturbed by harpoons or industry, has been on my must-do list for years. So nothing could have please me more than another serendipitous moment, which happened a few days ago when we first pulled into Broome.
The Indian Ocean off Australia's northwest coast, where humpbacks breed undisturbed every winter
As an aside to would-be Kimberley visitors, Broome does not disappoint. In the high season (Australian winter), its sea breezes, coastal cafes, and groovy urban feel are welcome relief after driving thousands of kilometres through the dust and dry extremes of the Outback. If you’re a beach lover, it will probably be your first glimpse of the Indian Ocean at Cable Beach, famous for its glorious sunsets and immortalised in song by The Waifs, that will take your breath away. Between us, it incited me to squeal.
All that said, we were keen to restock and find a private piece of perfection further north quickly. Somewhere between the supermarket and the drive-through bottle shop, I switched on the radio to catch our first bit of broadcast news in many days.
The very first bulletin announced that just that morning, the Supreme Court in Perth had severely rapped the knuckles of state officials for trying to unduly (and illegally) ram through approval of a controversial “natural” gas plant and port at James Price Point.
If you’re new to the issue, James Price Point sits in the middle of the sensational, pristine Kimberley coastline I’ve tried to describe. Environmentalists highly prize it as home to the outstanding whale population I’m now sharing time with — as does everyone else who learns about it and understands the value of allowing a few places to exist without human interference.
The spot has drawn eager and focused attention from the Western Australian government, too. In fact, by all accounts its leader has made it his personal mission to ensure a massive onshore (or offshore) gas development will be built to exploit the Browse Basin no matter what.
Since announcing its intentions in 2008, the government has repeatedly clashed with a local “No Gas” movement that is opposed to the $40 billion development on environmental and cultural grounds. Among the concerns are a planned breakwall that would extend 7 km into the whales’ habitat. (James Price is also the terrain of other important species, including the greater bilby, an endangered bandicoot.)
Protests, petitions and direct action have followed ever since. Then The Wilderness Society and a traditional Aboriginal landowner brought a suit against the government. It was this that made its way to the Supreme Court where, in addition to other wrongdoings, the court found conflicts of interest among government decision makers: Three of them owned shares in the proposed development company, Woodside Petroleum, or its BP partner. (For an accurate summary of the court’s finding, read the newspaper article here.)
As you can imagine, frontline opponents and frankly, this writer, are overjoyed to see such disgraceful actions exposed. Hopefully, the court’s finding has convincingly ended development plans for James Price Point and warns against similar corruption of Australian environmental approval processes. But that, of course, remains to be seen.
The magnificent, pristine coastline at James Price Point
A few hours after hearing the news, we set up camp just a little south of the site that has sparked such controversy and walked along a piece of literal paradise. Hermit crabs galore scurried across the sand and pulsated in the longest and widest stretch of tidal pools I’d ever seen. Red cliffs and white sand — as if the Central Desert had merged with Gold Coast beaches — magnified the beauty. Not a single artificial structure was in sight.
It wasn’t long before we spotted our first spouts and splashes, about 200 metres offshore. A mother humpback, her newborn calf and one other whale swam slowly north, in an apparent state of relaxation. I wondered if the mother was readying her calf for its first journey south from these safe, warm waters.
After being hunted to the brink of extinction, there’s something about the perseverance of whales that gives hope to millions of people worldwide. They’re a symbol, I think, that maybe, somehow, humanity and the ecosystems we’re a part of could survive after all. But that can only happen if those of us who care continue to stand up and say “no” and “enough” to industrial exploitation of the Earth’s few remaining wild places.
As the American writer and naturalist John Muir wrote: “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.”
A few days later, we trekked further north to see what all the fuss was about. Until you experience James Price for yourself, please take my word for it: It is definitely one of the places Muir was writing about.
More Information
- The fight to quash a massive gas development at James Price Point has been led by a few dedicated organisations that deserve your support, especially Save the Kimberley and The Wilderness Society
- Broome-based Kimberley Whale Watching offers a 10-day, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live aboard a humpback whale research vessel every August; you pay for the privilege
- You can learn more about humpback whales at the Kimberley Community Whale Research Project’s Facebook page.
Very interesting blog. Sara
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