DOZENS of Fremantle Dockers fans including former Australian of the Year Fiona Stanley, author Peter Newman and Greens MLC Brad Pettitt picketed the Fremantle Dockers AGM last week to protest the club’s ongoing sponsorship by Woodside. It comes after an escalating campaign to get the Dockers to drop Woodside as a sponsor in which celebrated author Tim Winton and former WA premier Carmen Lawrence have both called out the arrangement.
Conservation Council of WA fossil fuels program manager Anna Chapman says the sponsorship was a reputational risk to the club. “Last week, the WA environment minister dismissed a record number of appeals against a half-century extension for Woodside’s North West Shelf gas plant, the centrepiece of Woodside’s Burrup Hub, which will emit six billion tonnes of CO2 by 2070 and threaten UNESCO World Heritage-nominated Murujuga rock art,” Ms Chapman said.
“Under the pristine Scott Reef lies the Browse gas field. Woodside wants to drill for gas at the reef, and pump the gas in a pipeline 900km long, through two marine parks to the North West Shelf processing plant. Woodside is planning to surround Scott Reef with up to 50 gas wells – the closest being just 2km from the reef’s edge. Last night we stood together to ensure the Fremantle Dockers do the right thing for our community and our planet by giving Woodside the heave-ho.”
• D’Orsogna board members Giorgio Di Giulio and Eugene D’Orsogna with Bicton MLA Lisa O’Malley and agriculture and food minister Jackie Jarvis at D’Orsogna’s Palmyra headquarters.
A HOUSEHOLD
name since 1949, smallgoods producer D’Orsogna has been given a $1 million grant from the Cook government to expand and upgrade its palmyra factory. Managing director Jason Craig said the money would go towards automated manufacturing technologies to increase capacity and efficiencies, as well as upgrading the boning room. The works will create 10 new jobs. Board member Eugene D’Orsogna said the third generation WA family business had always prioritised innovation.
MELVILLE council has received $15 million in funding from an Albanese government suburban infrastructure program for its proposed library and cultural centre in Booragoon. The council approved the $60m business case for the project in March this year and anticipates 350,000 people will visit the centre each year when completed. The new four-level building will house the City’s main library, gallery and exhibition spaces, municipal museum and an outdoor civic space. Construction is expected to start mid-2026. Melville deputy mayor Karen Wheatland, who met national infrastructure minister Catherine King and Tangney MP Sam Lim last week to celebrate the funding, said it made it an historic day. “We know that the civic square library is a special place for Member for Tangney Sam Lim as he had his first ever English lesson here with his wife in 2003 and I look forward to the new opportunities that the library and cultural centre will create,” Cr Wheatland said.
POLICE are investigating the death of an 89-year-old woman in the carpark of the Mt Pleasant Uniting Church just after Sunday services finished last weekend. Police say a Toyota Rav 4 was reversing when it hit the woman, who received critical injuries. She was taken to Royal Perth Hospital but died from her injuries on Wednesday.