Have your say on the Gascoyne Gateway Marine Complex in Exmouth Gulf

What’s at stake?

The Gascoyne Gateway Marine Complex is a proposed deep-water port facility planned for the Exmouth Gulf, a globally significant environment connected to the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Coast.

The area where the port would be constructed is a diverse habitat that includes corals, seagrass meadows and sponge gardens that support vulnerable dugongs, whales, turtles, dolphins and birdlife.

Communities are concerned about the potential impacts to this ecosystem from extensive dredging of the seabed and construction of the project’s 1km-long wharf structure. Increased shipping traffic induced by the project could also impact this sensitive and unique ecosystem.

Have your say now

The WA Environmental Protection Authority (WA EPA) is assessing Gascoyne Gateway Ltd’s proposal to build an industrial port at Exmouth Gulf. Read the Environmental Review Document here and submit a public comment here.

You can make a comment about the plans to develop a port (jetty, wharf and associated infrastructure) about 10 km south of the Exmouth townsite any time before 16 November 2026.

The WA EPA says:

By telling the EPA your opinion, contributing knowledge and making suggestions, you will help us to make better recommendations to the Minister for Environment.

The Minister can then use this information to decide whether the project will go ahead and under what conditions.

Don’t think that you are only one voice and you won’t make a difference. Just one well-reasoned submission that raises a valid concern or offers a constructive suggestion can be very helpful and important.

What happens in an environmental impact assessment process?

This project was referred for assessment under WA environmental laws in 2021. The WA EPA decided that the project would be assessed at the highest level – public environmental review.

The proponent has now published its Environmental Review Document, which sets out information on the environmental impacts of the project and how these would be managed if the project is approved.

The next steps in the assessment process are:

• Now: The public has an opportunity to comment on the Environmental Review Document over a 12-week period.
• Next: The WA EPA will prepare its assessment report, setting out the key environmental factors for the project and making a recommendation to the Minister about whether or not it should be approved (and, if so, what conditions should be put on the approval). The WA EPA will publish a copy of its report on its website.
• Later: The Minister considers the WA EPA’s report when making a final decision about whether to approve the project.

The Gascoyne Gateway project

The project proposed by Gascoyne Gateway Ltd is a multipurpose marine complex in Exmouth to service a variety of vessels including cruise liners, Defence and marine supply vessels.

The project includes a site onshore which includes a warehouse, desalination plant, bulk fuel storage, a solar farm and associated access roads and utilities, as well as marine infrastructure that would include dredging from the seabed, constructing a jetty and causeway, and anchorage locations in Exmouth Gulf.

Exmouth Gulf is an important ecosystem. In 2022, the WA EPA published strategic advice regarding cumulative impacts of various proposed developments in and around Exmouth Gulf, available here: Potential cumulative impacts of the activities and developments proposed for Exmouth Gulf | EPA Western Australia. For example, one of the EPA’s recommendations was to accord a “high level of protection” to sensitive areas of the Exmouth Gulf, including Qualing Pool which is adjacent to the project area.

The Environmental Review Document

The key environmental factors and some potential impacts as set out in the Environmental Review Document includes:

• Marine Environmental Quality: impacts from dredging activities.
• Benthic Communities and Habitat: irreversible loss of benthic communities and habitat. Bethnic communities are groups of organisms that live on, in, or near the bottom of aquatic environments.
• Coastal Processes: changes in erosion and deposition patterns.
• Marine Fauna: impacts to turtles, whales, dugongs, sharks and sea snakes from vessel strike and entanglement in equipment.
• Flora and Vegetation: native vegetation clearing.
• Subterranean Fauna: impacts to gudgeon and blind cave eel from clearing of native vegetation and pollution of groundwater.
• Terrestrial Fauna: impacts to birds from native vegetation clearing.
• Inland Waters: impacts to groundwater and surface water.
• Social Surroundings: loss of landscape values from clearing, impacts to recreational use of the area, and other visual, cultural and economic impacts to local communities.

The Environmental Review Document is very long – totalling thousands of pages. You don’t need to read every part of this technical document to make a comment.

The purpose of a public comment period is to provide information and an opportunity to have your say on the environmental impacts of the project. Whether you’re providing local knowledge, technical expertise, passionate views or a simple opinion – your voice is important.

What should my comment include?
There are no specific rules about what your comment needs to look like, or what it can and cannot include. You could:

• Provide any information you have about the environment that may be impacted by the project. You might have local knowledge or technical expertise about Exmouth Gulf that could be useful to the WA EPA in its assessment.
• Raise any points you wish to make about the proponent’s assessment documents. For example, you might think there is an information gap or that there are other studies that are relevant to the assessment that should be considered by the WA EPA, or you might have views on the methodologies or approaches to the proponent’s assessment.
• Include any suggestions as to what you think the outcome of the assessment should be, including whether you think the project should be approved or not.

The following questions may be helpful in preparing your comment:

• How will Gascoyne Gateway Ltd’s proposed activities have an impact on the WA environment? Do you think those impacts are acceptable?
• Is the project consistent with the WA EPA’s strategic advice on Exmouth Gulf?
• Is this the right location for the project? Are there other locations that might be more suitable? One of the WA EPA’s key recommendations in its strategic advice was that “There is an opportunity to strengthen the protection of Exmouth Gulf through avoidance of activities and development proposals that could use alternative locations.”
• Has the EPA identified all the relevant key environmental factors? If not, which other factors are relevant and why? (See the EPA’s Statement of Environmental Principles, Factors and Objectives for a full list of factors)
• Has Gascoyne Gateway Ltd missed any relevant information, or is any information incorrect? (for example, are any threatened species not mentioned, or is there any incorrect information?)
• Is the project consistent with the EPA’s Environmental Factor Guidelines for each of the relevant key environmental factors? If no, why not? What could be done to change the project so that it is consistent? What conditions should be imposed on the project to ensure it is consistent?

Remember to have your say here before 16 November 2026.