Judge dismisses legal bid to prevent gas fracking in the Top End

Activists opposing fracking due to water contamination concerns have suffered a bruising defeat after their lawsuit challenging federal environmental laws was thrown out.

Gas company Tamboran B2 has been given the green light to explore the development of 15 gas wells in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin under the Shenandoah fracking pilot.

Lock The Gate Alliance had asked the Federal Court to grant an injunction compelling the federal government to assess the project under water trigger provisions of national environmental laws.

But their efforts were shown to be in vain when the case was dismissed by Justice Nicholas Owens on Friday.

The judge’s full reasons have yet to be published.

Tamboran B2 had already fracked five wells without referral to the federal government, Lock The Gate Alliance research and investigations head Georgina Woods said before a hearing in June 2025.

“We are very concerned about the potential of the project to significantly impact groundwater resources through contamination,” she said at the time.

“The whole of the Northern Territory relies on groundwater. Water is life up there.”

A statement from Tamboran B2 at the time maintained the company was committed to upholding environmental standards.

In a prescient statement made a year ago, a company spokesperson attacked the lawsuit as another in a “series of failed attempts” to deny the economic and social benefits the Beetaloo Project would have for people in the region.

Fracking involves injecting a combination of water, chemicals and sand into deep shale layers underground at high pressure to extract gas. 

The federal water trigger legislation was expanded by federal parliament in 2023 to require the assessment of the impact of large coal mining and coal seam gas projects on water resources.

Tamboran B2 has not referred itself to the national regulator and the government hasn’t selected the project for consideration. 

Parent company Tamboran is the largest acreage holder and operator in the Beetaloo Basin, with about 770,000 net prospective hectares.

Tamboran and Lock the Gate have been contacted for comment.

Source: AAP