As with all good movie sequels, you just know the baddies always come back meaner, stronger and nastier. Apollo Creed, The T-1000 in "Terminator," Freddy Kruger and Griff Tannen all had a real axe to grind and didn’t give up easy.
The original Fight For The Bight was a public, surfer-led campaign to stop gas and oil drilling in the Southern Ocean. It became the largest coastal campaign in Australian history. Tens of thousands of people paddled out in protest right around the country and the strength of public opposition and the whip-smart media campaign saw the Norwegian oil company, Equinor, withdraw in 2021.
It was an incredible against-the-odds win, fought against some of the biggest, richest companies in the world, who had political backing from the then Australian Federal government. Rocky Balboa would have been proud. Yet the door wasn't completely shut.
“The exploration leases were all still open so at any moment someone could jump back in and have a crack at drilling out there again,” said Heath Joske, a former pro surfer and one of the leaders of the protest moment, in a Roaring Journals piece by Sean Doherty . “I don't think anyone's going to go near this for a while, because Australia stood up and stopped it, but if the economics shifted or the world shifted, it's all back on. While those leases are still open, you never win.”
Related: Norwegian Oil Company Equinor Pulls Plans to Drill in the Great Australian Bight
The best, and perhaps only, way to protect the Bight having it granted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. That’s what the Yerkala Mirning Traditional Owners, Sea Shepherd, and the Wilderness Society of South Australia are currently pushing for now. It’s the next, and hopefully final, stage in making sure gas and oil drilling will never happen in the Bight.
The area has a pretty good case. It boasts a staggering amount of biodiversity, with more than 85% of species found nowhere else on Earth. Threatened and endangered species include great white sharks, southern bluefin tuna, Australian sea lions, white-bellied sea eagles and albatross, as well as more than 36 species of dolphins and whales.
As a border between the sea and the desert, it has the largest single piece of limestone in the world and the longest line of sea cliffs, up to 120 metres high and hundreds of kilometres long. The Yerkala Mirning people’s links to the land and sea date back to at least 65,000 years ago.
With stunning natural wonders, lifeforms found nowhere else and a living culture connecting desert with ocean, (and some pretty good waves) it would easily sit along other Australian World Heritage sites like the Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo, Kakadu and Shark Bay.
The Wilderness Society has created a petition which it will deliver to Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek in Canberra in the coming months. By lending your name to it, you can protect this ancient, vibrant and sacred stretch of Australia. And stop the baddies ever turning up for a sequel.
Related: How Australian Surfers Created a Powerful Environmental Movement
Related: Patagonia Launches Petition To Protect 30% Of Australia's Ocean By 2030
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