As of last year, Southern Launch operated Australia’s only rocket facilities approved by the ASA for launches to space. Shown here is their successful launch of one of the largest commercial rockets in the nation’s history in May. Photo: SL.
Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has approved a new rocket launching facility on South Australia’s coastline, despite previously acknowledging the ‘critical’ impact it would have on local endangered species.
Around 750 Eyre Peninsula Southern Emu-wrens are believed to be left in existence and living directly in the path of the planned Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex. Conservation groups have voiced strong opposition to the project’s development over concerns future launches will endanger the bird and 11 other species who depend on the nearby habitat.
Southern Launch (SL), an Adelaide-based aerospace company and launch service provider, got approval from the Australian Space Agency (ASA) to develop the facility a year after its plans were originally announced in 2021.
While the company prefers the site due to its year-round stable weather and low maritime/air traffic, South Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said its approval was “an insult to locals who clearly said they don’t want rockets threatening their environment, or tourism and local industries, including fishing”.
“This decision shows the Albanese Government is not genuine in its pledge to stop wildlife extinction and habitat destruction,” she said. “There are no conditions that could make this project acceptable; the minister should have rejected it.
“Space has a place in SA, but a rocket launch site bang in the middle of a delicate ecosystem and against the wishes of this vibrant coastal community is not it.”
Though SA Planning Minister Nick Champion still needs to approve the company’s proposal, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has slammed Minister Plibersek’s consent as “an incredibly disappointing decision that flies in the face of the government’s commitment to zero new extinctions”.
“A pair of tiny emu-wrens typically lives in just one hectare of good quality habitat,” said ACF nature campaigner Darcie Carruthers. “This project will flatten nearly 24 hectares of their home.
“The bulldozing of the emu-wrens’ coastal heath home – not to mention the shock waves, noise pollution and potential rocket fuel fires – could push this beautiful little bird even closer to extinction.”
The 2019/2020 bushfires severely impacted the Southern Emu-wren and led to it being identified as a priority species for conservation planning. Photo: Environment SA.
In July 2023, Minister Plibersek approved conservation advice from her portfolio’s department that identified Whalers Way as “habitat critical to the survival” of the endangered species.
“The main threat to the Eyre Peninsula Southern Emu-wren is the loss, degradation and fragmentation of habitat,” read the advice. “The subspecies’ habitat is also being degraded by a variety of land use and management processes, including clearance of native vegetation, grazing of livestock, water extraction and swamp drainage.
“Furthermore, with increased industrial development within the subspecies’ range (e.g., Whalers Way space launch site), an emerging threat is the noise and light impacts associated with the construction and operations of the sites.
“As a consequence of fragmentation of habitat, isolated populations face the loss of genetic diversity, especially in smaller populations. This could lead to inbreeding depression and potentially local extinctions.”
Critics assert the complex will also endanger the Mallee whipbird, Australian sea lions and southern right whales. Photo: Facebook.
Whaler’s Way could be the second launch site for SL in South Australia, its other being Koonibba in the state’s far west.
In 2021, the company submitted its 3200-page development application and environmental impact statement for the new complex. CEO Lloyd Damp said at the time it represented “the culmination of over three years of research” and consultation with “over 30 subject matter experts in a broad range of fields”.
The document bore a biodiversity strategy that included measures to remove decades of dumped rubbish from the site, sponsor research on the lower Eyre Peninsula’s fauna and flora, implement a weed, vermin and feral animal eradication program, and reintroduce native vegetation.
Mr Carruthers said Minister Plibersek’s approval of the site “demonstrates that Australia’s nature laws truly are broken and powerless to rein in businesses like Southern Launch from bulldozing the bush”.
“Australia needs the Albanese Government to deliver its promised reforms to our nature laws in full and work with others in parliament to create an independent, well-funded environment protection agency to enforce it so projects like this get a straight ‘no’ right from the start and places like Whalers Way are respected, not wrecked.”
