"Anything but harmless": Seismic blasting for Victorian gas raises pollution and ocean health fears

One of Australia’s most iconic stretches of coastline could soon become the site of new gas exploration, after the Victorian Government opened 45,000 square kilometres of ocean to petroleum companies.

The state government is inviting petroleum companies to apply for a licence in the Otway Basin between Port Campbell and Warrnambool. 

The tenders, released this month, form part of a broader process that also includes a Gippsland site. 

If approved, they would allow companies to conduct surveys and test drilling in waters off the Great Ocean Road, near the Bay of Islands Coastal Protection Reserve.

Seismic blasting is essentially an underwater treasure hunt for oil and gas, except instead of a cute little map and shovel, companies tow a ship housing an array of high-pressure airguns to fire seismic shockwaves causing deafening blasts into the ocean every 10 seconds, day and night, for months on end across vast areas of the ocean. 

These signals, which can be detected thousands of kilometres from their source, penetrate deep beneath the seafloor and bounce back to acoustic receivers to reveal geological structures. 

Conservationists argue the practice is anything but harmless.

“Exploring for gas is not a benign activity,” Friends of the Earth Melbourne campaigner Stan Woodhouse told the West Vic Brolga.

“It involves destructive survey techniques like seismic blasting, something the communities along the Great Ocean Road have been very vocal in their opposition to.

“If seismic blasting goes ahead people will first notice the survey vessels making laps of the area, then a die-off of southern rock lobsters as the endless blasting damages their ability to coordinate.”

Woodhouse described drilling exploration as “an industrial process, and the signature of industrialisation will be etched into the coastline with pipelines, subsea wells, vessel traffic and drilling rigs”.

Environment Victoria’s Senior Climate and Energy Advisor Dr Kat Lucas-Healey, said the licences would “invite more damaging climate pollution into Victoria, at a time when local communities are keen to transition to a renewable powered future”.

Consultation on the tenders is open through Engage Victoria until September 9.

This story was originally published in the West Vic Brolga.
Image credit: Visit Victoria