Landmark lawsuit against ‘concerning’ fracking tossed
Activists opposing fracking over water pollution concerns suffered a heavy defeat after their lawsuit challenging federal environmental laws was dismissed.
Natural 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 as part of the Shenandoah fracking pilot.
Lock The Gate Alliance had asked the Federal Court to grant an injunction forcing the federal government to consider the project under the water trigger provisions of national environmental laws.
But their efforts appeared to be in vain when the case was dismissed by Judge Nicholas Owens on Friday.
The judge’s full reasons have not yet been published.
Lock The Gate Alliance head of research and investigations Georgina Woods said ahead of the hearing in June 2025 that Tamboran B2 had already blown five wells without recourse to the federal government.
“We are very concerned about the potential for the project to significantly impact groundwater resources through contamination,” he said at the time.
“The entire Northern Territory relies on groundwater. Water is life there.”
A statement from Tamboran B2 at the time suggested the company was committed to maintaining environmental standards.
In a prescient statement made a year ago, a company spokesman criticized the lawsuit as one of a series of “failed attempts” to deny the economic and social benefits Project Beetaloo would bring 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.
Federal water trigger legislation was expanded by the federal parliament in 2023 to require assessment of the impact of major coal mining and coal seam gas projects on water resources.
Tamboran B2 did not report itself to the national regulator and the government did not select the project for consideration.
Parent company Tamboran is the largest land owner and operator in the Beetaloo Basin, with approximately 770,000 net prospective hectares.
Tamboran and Lock the Gate have been contacted for comment.
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