Gina Rinehart’s proposed Belisama gas project has been referred to the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).
Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting wants permission to clear black cockatoo habitat and draw millions of litres of groundwater to process dangerous fossil gas 25kms from Mingenew.
The EPA has opened a seven-day public comment period on whether or not it should assess this proposal.
This guide is designed to help you make a quick submission. It will only take a few minutes to help increase scrutiny on Gina Rinehart’s gas plans for WA’s Mid West region.
The seven-day comment period closes May 12th 2026.
How to Make A Submission:
- Visit the EPA's Belisama Gas Project Submission Portal
- Enter your name, email, organisation (if relevant) and postcode
- Questions 5: “does the proposal need further assessment due to its potential significant impacts” select ‘yes’
- Question 6: If the proposal requires further assessment, should the EPA include further opportunities for public review” select ‘yes’
- Question 7 summarise the key reasons why the EPA should conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment on this proposal (maximum 500 words). Below are notes you can draw from or copy and use directly:
This proposal should be assessed by the EPA at the level of Public Environmental Review because:
- The proposal would include 291.5 ha of disturbance, including almost 6 ha of remnant native vegetation clearing. This clearing and disturbance will occur within a known habitat and foraging area of the endangered Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo, and is already vastly cleared of vegetation. Further, numerous Specially Protected flora are present within the assessment area and proposed development area.
- Clearing of habitat for black cockatoos across the midwest region is significant and native vegetation clearing applications for the Mid West region for 2026 have already exceeded 7,000 hectares. This proposal will cumulatively add to the loss of native flora and wildlife habitat in the Mid West region
- The proposal could impact two water courses: it crosses over Sand Plain Creek and is located very close to the Irwin River/Yarranoo Muraja
- The proposal would use 300 million litres (0.3GL) of groundwater from bores every year for the life of the project. The expected life of the project is 30 years, meaning 9 billion litres of ground water would be used. This is a groundwater dependent ecosystem with declining rainfall. The impacts of the cumulative risks to groundwater need to be assessed.
- The proposal would produce 4.4 million tonnes of CO2 Scope 3 emissions each year, totalling almost 109 million tonnes of CO2 over the project's lifetime. Alongside cumulative habitat loss. Mitigation measures must be understood and assessed.
- Further, 85, 900 tonnes of CO2 per annum of Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions will be produced. Over the life of the project that amounts to 2.15 million tonnes of emissions.
- The proposal should be assessed under the EPAs Greenhouse Gas Environmental Factor guidelines as the only available mechanism to consider the environmental impacts of climate pollution from projects like this one.
- The proposal would contribute to climate change. According to the International Energy Agency, there can be no new gas projects if the world is to reach 1.5-degree warming targets set by the Paris Agreement. Fossil fuel proliferation risks endangering the world’s climate and delaying the transition to renewables. Australia's gas export industry is a major contributor to global emissions and should not be expanded. Any new oil and gas exploration is therefore unnecessary and poses unacceptable climate risks.
- The proposal is one of many other projects in the Perth Basin there should be a bioregional plan to review the compounding threats to this region from climate change, vegetation clearing and loss, carbon emissions and climate impacts and water use.
Make Your Submission
Submissions closes May 12th 2026.