A group of Aussies have undertaken a mission to one of the country’s last ‘lost worlds’. While the ancient reef’s remote location has protected it from harm for generations, the group is concerned this wild place could be changed forever by a proposed industrial project slated for the area.
Sitting 300km off the Kimberley Coast, the overnight trip to Scott Reef took 16 hours on a boat. Free diver and marine biologist Brinkley Davies was one of several high-profile Aussies, including novelist Tim Winton and rockstar John Butler who made the trip.
“Scott Reef definitely had the most pristine coral formations I’ve ever seen. Some areas are completely untouched, which you don’t really get to see anywhere else,” Brinkley told Yahoo News.
Another on board the boat was underwater cinematographer Andre Rerekura who is well-known for his work on the Disney series Shipwreck Hunters. “The first glimpse you have of the reef is its glow and the shallow white sands around its lagoon,” Renekura told Yahoo.
“We were so excited all of us skipped breakfast and scrambled into the water,” he said.
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Scott Reef is so remote most Aussies haven’t heard of it. Source: Nush Freedman
What’s it like underneath the water in this ‘lost world’?
Photographs by Rerekura and his partner Nush Freedman highlight the remarkable condition of the reef. “It was crystal clear, with 30 metres of visibility,” he said. “Every night there’s green turtles on shore leaving footprints along the incredible sand cay.”
Located closer to Indonesian islands than Australia, the sea snakes, turtles and fish that call it home have had little exposure to humans, and most showed curiosity rather than fear.
Davies who has dived the world’s best reefs agreed it was like a “lost world” under the water. “I had this one sea snake.. it kept swimming along and foraging, then turning around and slithering back directly at me — kind of checking me out.
“The next time, it came up for a breath I also went up for air. Then as I dived down it followed me. It was slithering along my fins, testing to see what they were with its little tongue. It was really cool.”
Brinkley describes Scott Reef’s remoteness as “both a blessing and a curse”. She believes few people understand it’s at risk of being “destroyed” because they simply don’t know it exists.
She told Yahoo it’s “baffling” that an industrial gas drilling project that could harm the reef is even being considered. “These places should be left and left to thrive and not disregarded just because they’re far away or not near a big city,” she said.
Scott Reef is one of the most beautiful, pristine parts of the planet.John Butler
Freediver Brinkley Davies had feared Scott Reef was so remote, few people in Australia knew it needed protecting. Source: Nush Freedman
Woodside has controversial gas well plan near the reef
The trip was organised in response to energy giant Woodside’s controversial plan to drill 50 gas wells around Scott Reef, some of them just 3km away. The group included scientists, artists, and conservationists from Greenpeace, Australian Conservation Foundation and Australian Marine Conservation Society — all of which oppose the Browse gas project which they claim could add billions of tonnes of fossil fuel pollution into the atmosphere.
Another participant was Jess Beckerling, the executive director of Conservation Council of WA, who said it would be “unthinkable” to allow Woodside to drill for gas near the “extraordinary coral reef ecosystem”.
“It’s incumbent on the state and federal governments to protect this incredible coral reef ecosystem and reject Woodside’s Browse gas proposal,” she said.
Unlike much of the Great Barrier Reef, most of the coral at Scott Reef remains unharmed by bleaching. Source: Nush Freedman
Woodside ‘confident’ it can manage environmental risks to reef
Woodside plans to extract the fossil fuel from the surrounding Browse gas field and pipe it 900km to its Burrup Hub export facility on Western Australia’s remote Pilbara coast.
Although gas is a driver of the climate crisis, the Albanese government has backed increased production in Australia, spruiking it as a transitionary fuel during the renewable energy transition. And his energy minister Madeleine King has been a staunch supporter of Woodside’s plans for the region.
However Woodside’s project is yet to be approved because of its potential to harm wildlife already threatened with extinction, including pygmy blue whales, turtles and sea snakes. In August, Western Australia’s independent environment watchdog, the EPA, indicated $30 billion Browse gas project expansion posed an unacceptable risk to the environment. And billionaire Dr Andrew Forrest has argued the project should be stopped.
The reef was filled with corals larger than a human body. Source: Nush Freedman
Woodside told Yahoo News via email it is “confident” the documents it submitted more than five years ago demonstrate its “intent” to manage “environmental impacts and risks” to what it said was an “acceptable level”. And new “additional best practice mitigations” announced in September this year, combined with new scientific data, demonstrate its “commitment to avoid and minimise any potential environmental impacts”.
Responding to concerns specifically about Scott Reef, it added, “No drilling would occur on Scott Reef, in the North/South Scott Reef lagoons or the Scott Reef Channel as part of the proposed Browse development”.
“The floating production storage and offloading vessels would be located almost 8km from the reef and nearly 30km from the Sandy Islet Turtle Nesting Habitat. The nearest drilling would occur approximately 3km from the reef.”
Marine life showed little fear of divers entering their world. Source: Nush Freedman
Aussie author ‘bewildered’ by threats to reef
Despite assurances from Woodside, those who took part in the expedition to Scott Reef aren’t comfortable with project’s risk.
After spending time at the reef, Author Tim Winton said he was confident thousands of Aussies would band together and protect it from harm.
“Wild places feed our spirit. And our bodies. And our planet. They are not a luxury – they’re a necessity. The world’s coral reefs are in desperate trouble, and Scott Reef is like a sentinel. If we lose Scott Reef, it’ll signal the end for all coral reefs. And when they cook and die, we’ll be left with a poorer, harsher world,” he said.
“The idea that your kids, and their kids and their kids’ kids, might never have the chance to see a place like Scott Reef – it disturbs me, it makes me angry. The injustice of it bewilders me.”
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