Call to ditch energy hub to save herb from extinction

A little-known plant found only on a tropical peninsula could become extinct if a gas and petrochemical hub is planned, an environmental group says.

Documents leaked to the NT Environment Center show the Middle Arm project at Darwin Harbor will wipe out 86 per cent of the endangered plant’s remaining population.

The leaked assessment comes from the Northern Territory government’s own draft environmental impact statement for the project.

Tiny plant Typhonium sp. The Cox Peninsula was one of 35 plants and animals added to Australia’s national threatened species list in February.

Environment Center NT said if the proposed Middle Arm hub goes ahead it could become extinct due to land clearing on the Cox Peninsula.

The environment center said the Middle Arm project would also harm critically endangered far eastern sandpipers and endangered black-footed tree shrews.

Typhonium species are seasonally dormant when conditions are dry, emerging from underground tubers during the wet season in the Top End of Australia.

The federal government has pledged $1.5 billion to build river dredging and industrial piers on the Middle Arm peninsula.

Environment Center NT Executive Director Kirsty Howey said federal Environment Minister Murray Watt could not approve a project that government scientists said would lead to the extinction of a species.

“It is frankly immoral to pursue development that will almost completely destroy the home of an endangered species,” he said.

The NT government’s infrastructure department said the draft environmental impact statement has not yet been completed or submitted and is expected to be published for public review and comment in 2027.

“Until assessments are completed, it is premature to make judgments about potential impacts and how they might be managed, especially as the proposal becomes more refined,” the ministry said.

It was stated that the impact statement will describe commitments to prevent, mitigate or offset impacts to ensure long-term protection of the environment.