Researcher perspectives on the Middle Arm industrial precinct

The planning of a major industrial precinct at Middle Arm – a coastal peninsula located within Darwin Harbour – has garnered significant attention with strong and diverse views.

The seminar ‘Researcher perspectives on the Middle Arm industrial precinct’ will offer valuable insights into the planned Middle Arm development. Three speakers will share their perspectives on the implications of the development, based on their backgrounds in research and science.

Presenting ‘Is the Middle Arm Development For the Common Good?’ Stephen W Enciso will review what philosophers and political theorists have said about the concept of the common good, proposing a series of questions that function as tests for determining whether a proposed development is for the common good. By reference to evidence presented to the Senate Inquiry into the Middle Arm industrial precinct, Stephen suggests that the Middle Arm project fails to meet the aforementioned tests and, consequently, fails to be for the common good.

Stephen will also survey moral theories of action to consider how individuals and communities living under governments that fail to act for the common good ought to respond. If time allows, the relationship between the common good and the satellite concepts of risk (as in cost-benefit analysis), security (as in ‘energy security’), and the public interest, will also be discussed.  

Stephen is a Research and Teaching Associate in Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Society at CDU. He co-teaches critical thinking and ethics. He is also undertaking a PhD through the Northern Institute.

Billee McGinley will then present ‘A spatial exploration of implications of fracking in the Beetaloo Basin’, discussing why the assessment of the implications of the Middle Arm development needs to extend to gas projects it will enable and justify, including the unconventional mining of shale gas in the Beetaloo Basin using hydraulic fracturing technology, commonly known as fracking.

Production of shale gas in the Beetaloo Basin to supply gas to Middle Arm could involve industrialising vast landscapes and clearing extensive areas of vegetation. Billee suggests that cumulative impacts have so far not been considered adequately for this site, and will present further assessments and concerns using spatial data and scientific evidence not yet considered.

In particular, this presentation will review the threat of cumulative impacts of the proposed gas field in the catchment of the internationally significant Ramsar-quality wetland system, Lake Woods and Longreach Waterhole protected area, and will also offer a review of the high environmental value areas identified as no-go zones in the Strategic Regional Environmental Baseline Assessment (SREBA) and current reserve system to meet conservation of biodiversity policy goals.

Billee is a geo-spatial scientist with a diversity and depth of experience in natural resource management and the use of Geographic Information Systems. Billee has resided on Kulumbirigin Country in Darwin since 2001, has worked widely across the Top End, and is interested in bioregional planning, ecological sustainable development, and ecosystem service opportunities.

Lastly, Colton Perna will present ‘One development in Middle Arm, three catchments impacted’ to illustrate that the development of the Middle Arm petrochemical hub will not have an isolated impact at the site of development but rather an extended impact on the Adelaide River and Roper River catchments. The development of the hub will depend on the development of the Beetaloo Basin for gas supply, which could impact groundwater and likely surface waters within the southern catchment of the Roper River.

Furthermore, to meet the proposed freshwater needs of the Middle Arm development, an off-channel water storage and harvest scheme will be needed in the Adelaide River catchment, known as the Adelaide River Off-Channel Water Storage project (AROWS). The literature indicates that flood harvesting of waters for off-channel storage can impact downstream wetlands, through reduced connectivity likely impacting spawning and nursery areas and decreased food supply and quality.

Colton has been working on his PhD on food webs in the Roper River since 2021. His project focuses on the connection between flows and food web structure, quality, and quantity. Colton has extensive work experience in the heavily modified Burdekin floodplain in Queensland as well as having sampled most catchments between Townsville and the Roper River for the North Australian Freshwater Fish project in the late 2000s. He has a strong interest in mitigating impact to freshwater environments and ecology.

This seminar, part of the RIEL Seminar Series, is organised in partnership with the Northern Institute.

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