What We Do
We work with you and the law to protect our natural world
We are the Environmental Defenders Office, and we use the power of the law to defend nature, climate, culture and communities. We are the largest environmental legal centre in the Australia-Pacific region. Our team of lawyers, scientists and policy experts help communities protect the environment we all depend on.
We run bold and groundbreaking court cases
Our environmental legal cases help ordinary people hold governments and corporations accountable.
We help build better laws
When environmental laws aren’t working as they should, our policy experts help design better legislation.
We educate and empower communities
Our community outreach program helps people from Karratha to Cairns understand their legal rights and participate in the big decisions that impact our lives and nature.
We provide free legal advice
Our legal hotline helps thousands of Australians every year learn how to advocate for nature through the law. Apply for free legal advice here.
We run bold and ground-breaking court cases
Our environmental legal cases help ordinary people hold governments and corporations accountable.
We help build better laws
When environmental laws aren’t working as they should, our policy experts help design better legislation.
We educate and empower communities
Our community outreach program helps people from Karratha to Cairns understand their legal rights and participate in the big decisions that impact our lives and nature.
We provide free legal advice
Our legal hotline helps thousands of Australians each year learn how to advocate for nature using the law. Apply for free legal advice here.
For 40 years we’ve stood with frontline communities working towards a future where nature thrives
2025
The Parliament of South Australia passes the Biodiversity Bill 2025, creating South Australia’s first state-based laws to protect native plants, animals and ecosystems, prevent damage to the environment, and support restoration. EDO’s experts in policy, law reform and science engaged on the development of this bill.
2024-25
The Australian Capital Territory legislates a right to a healthy environment by amending its Human Rights Act, becoming the first Australian jurisdiction to do so. EDO advocacy was a key part of this successful reform.
2024
For nine years, we worked with the local community and environment groups including BirdLife Australia, to protect the Ramsar-listed Toondah Harbour wetlands from a major development first proposed in 2015. In 2024, the Walker Group withdraws its development proposal after the Federal Environment Minister indicates it will not gain approval.
2024
In the spectacular Hinchinbrook region of Queensland, we assist our client Kenn Parker to protect the Girramay National Park and the Great Barrier Reef from harmful acid sulphate run-off from a failed development.
2024
We help the Sugarloaf & Districts Action Group win their fight to protect the sacred Awabakal Butterfly Cave women’s site from a housing development.
2024
Native forest logging is banned in Western Australia. EDO assisted clients for many years to protect native forests in WA.
2023
We act for Mardathoonera traditional custodian, Raelene Cooper, in a successful Federal Court judicial review of Woodside Energy’s approval to conduct seismic blasting for its Scarborough Gas Project. An injunction is granted to stop work going ahead until the case has been determined.
2022
Our clients in the Camberwell and Hunter community in NSW win their decades-long fight to protect local waterways from Yancoal’s planned Ashton South East Open Cut coal mine extension.
2022
EDO establishes its Indigenous-led First Nations and Indigenous Peoples Program and First Nations Strategic Advisory Committee to lead and advise on EDO’s work involving First Nations communities and peoples.
2022
In a huge win for climate and human rights, the Queensland Land Court finds Clive Palmer’s proposed Galilee Coal Project should be rejected. Our clients, Youth Verdict and the Bimblebox Alliance, fought long and hard to stop this mine from destroying culture, climate, and wildlife.
2022
We represent Dennis Tipakalippa on behalf of the Munupi Clan in judicial review proceedings regarding Santos’ failure to consult the Munupi Clan over offshore gas drilling project approvals in Tiwi Island sea country. This matter is successful at first instance and on appeal in the Full Federal Court.
2021
Farmers and community members from the Acland district on the Darling Downs in Queensland win their High Court challenge, requiring a new Land Court Hearing on a coal mine expansion plan which threatens to swallow their township. Ultimately the mine is permitted to expand, but for almost 10 years we help our client fight for their community in the Land Court, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the High Court of Australia, resulting in tighter operating conditions for the mine.
2021
In a huge win for EDO clients, the Wilderness Society (Tasmania), Tasmanian National Parks Association, Richard Webb and Paul Smith, a planning appeal relating to a heli-tourism development at Halls Island, Lake Malbena, in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is withdrawn.
2021
The epic legal battle to protect the pristine Bylong Valley from a massive new coal mine is won, after the High Court declines to hear an appeal by the proponent. Our client, the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance, dedicated years to challenging this destructive and inappropriate coal mine proposal before the Independent Planning Commission, the NSW Land and Environment Court, the Court of Appeal, and the High Court of Australia.
2021
Our client, Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, wins their landmark legal case. The NSW Land and Environment Court find that the NSW Environment Protection Authority has a duty to develop policies, objectives and guidelines to address greenhouse gas emissions and protect communities from the impacts of climate change.
2020
We partner with Solomon Islands’ Landowners Advocacy and Legal Support Unit to successfully challenge a bauxite mine threatening Wagina Island. This historic case results in the first-ever Environment Advisory Committee decision refusing development consent, protecting 2,000 residents and 60% of their island home from irreversible environmental destruction.
2020
In Western Australia, we assist community groups to challenge a proposal to construct a 10km pipeline through Ningaloo Marine Park to reach offshore oil rigs. The proposal is put on hold while the Environmental Protection Authority assesses environmental impacts on the nearby Exmouth Gulf. Ultimately Norwegian company Subsea 7 abandons its controversial plan.
2020
EDO establishes its Corporate and Commercial practice, which focuses on corporate greenwashing, holding companies accountable for misleading environmental claims, and advocating for stronger climate-related corporate laws.
2019
In a huge win for our client, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Federal Government concedes the case brought against it over Adani’s North Galilee Water Scheme.
2019
Groundswell Gloucester secures a landmark legal victory, with the refusal of the proposed Rocky Hill coal mine in the Upper Hunter region of NSW. A key factor in the win is the mine’s potential impacts on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
2019
One EDO is launched and all state-based offices merge to form a single organisation.
2017
The Northern Territory Government declares a mineral and petroleum reserve over Watarrka (Kings Canyon) National Park, excluding any future mineral or energy exploration and extraction after we assist Traditional Owners to apply for emergency protection under federal heritage laws.
2016
Our client Friends of Tumblebee successfully challenge an approval for the construction of a steel fabrication and workshop facility in habitat for the critically endangered regent honeyeater.
2015
We assist Bundjalung Elder Mickey Ryan to successfully challenge a planning proposal for the North Lismore Plateau in the Northern Rivers in NSW on environmental and cultural heritage grounds.
2015
We represent three conservation groups in separate court cases to stop the dumping of dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef. These cases contribute to the historic new ban on dumping dredge spoil in the World Heritage Area.
2014
Hunter Valley clients win a David and Goliath battle against mining giant Rio Tinto and the NSW Government when they successfully challenge an approval to expand an open-cut coal mine to within 2.6km of the historic village of Bulga.
2014
The International Court of Justice rules Japan must halt its whaling program in the Southern Ocean, 10 years after our landmark legal case to prevent the killing of whales in Australian Antarctic waters.
2013
EDO and legal firm Slater & Gordon win a major case in the Supreme Court of Western Australia to protect James Price Point, near Broome, from a liquified natural gas precinct. We represented The Wilderness Society of WA and Richard Hunter, a Goolaraboolooo man and Traditional Owner.
2012
Fullerton Cove Residents Action Group obtains an injunction to halt Dart Energy’s exploratory drilling for coal seam gas (CSG) at Fullerton Cove, near Newcastle in NSW. This is the first time a court issues an injunction to stop CSG drilling in Australia.
2008
The NSW Land and Environment Court overturns approval for the biggest housing development in the state after our client challenges the Minister for Planning’s approval of a 600-house subdivision on sensitive land at the historic coastal township of Catherine Hill Bay, south of Newcastle.
2007
We assist a client in a successful Land and Environment Court challenge to a proposal to build up to 285 homes and an aged care facility on flood prone land at Sandon Point near Wollongong in NSW. We argue that decision-makers need to consider the impacts of climate change on the development. The decision is overturned on appeal but paves the way for successful cases that follow.
2006
EDO establishes the Indigenous Engagement Program to build awareness of our services and explain how we can work with Aboriginal communities. We start by producing Caring for Country, a respected and comprehensive guide to environmental and cultural heritage laws for Aboriginal communities.
2005
EDO NSW’s first Principal Solicitor Brian Preston is made Chief Judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court.
2004
We act for Humane Society International in a landmark case seeking to prevent Japanese whalers from killing whales in Australian Antarctic waters. The Federal Court confirms that Japanese whaling in Australian Antarctic waters is illegal and issues an injunction to restrain whalers from further breaches of the law.
2003
Our clients Queensland Conservation Council and World Wide Fund for Nature win their Federal Court case challenging the approval of an 880,000 megalitre dam in central Queensland that could have led to chemical pollution in the Great Barrier Reef.
2003
EDO establishes an in-house Scientific Advisory Service made up of academic experts and a register of scientific experts providing pro-bono assistance to EDO and its clients.
2002
Former EDO NSW Principal Solicitor Dr Nicola Pain is appointed as a Judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court.
2000
We run the first test case of Australia’s national environment laws and win the case for our client who is seeking to protect endangered spectacled flying foxes. We gain an injunction to stop a lychee farmer in North Queensland electrocuting thousands of flying foxes each year.
2000
We act for a client who appeals against a consent for a cotton farm at “Beemery” near Bourke in NSW on the grounds that it is not ecologically sustainable, including risks to groundwater. Parties settle and agree on stringent consent orders. The conditions contained in the settlement set the standard against which future cotton developments will be measured.
1997
We act for a client to stop clearing for a subdivision on the environmentally sensitive Iron Gates site at Evans Head in northern NSW. In a landmark judgment, the court renders the development consent null and void and orders a full restoration of the important wildlife corridor.
1996
EDO offices are established in the Northern Territory, ACT, Western Australia and Tasmania. ANEDO – the national EDO network – is formed to allow EDOs across the country to cooperate on matters of national interest.
1995
EDO North Queensland office is established.
1994
We act for Greenpeace in the first climate change case heard by an Australian court. The case involves a challenge to Singleton Council’s approval of a coal-fired power station in the Hunter Valley in NSW. While unsuccessful, this case forms the foundation for future climate change litigation in Australia.
1994
Our client, the Tasmanian Conservation Trust challenges the approval of a new licence to export woodchips from Tasmania. The court holds that the Federal Resources Minister made a legal error by not referring the matter to the Department of Environment for assessment.
1993
A client in Ebenezer NSW successfully brings proceedings to stop odours coming from a facility composting material for growing mushrooms. The odours are so bad that children at the local school are sometimes ill, and residents keep their doors and windows closed.
1991
EDO South Australia is established.
1991
EDO’s International Program launches. We help the Temotu Province of Solomon Islands redraft its environmental protection laws to regulate the export of endangered species.
1990
EDO Victoria is established.
1989
We assist a client to obtain an injunction preventing the NSW Forestry Commission from logging old-growth eucalypt forests near Eden. The case sets a benchmark for environmental assessments.
1989
EDO Queensland is established.
1985
EDO begins operation in NSW with a single lawyer, future Chief Judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court Brian Preston, engaged to provide environmental legal services.
Case Studies
Defending Ningaloo Reef
EDO worked closely with community groups in 2020 to challenge a Norwegian company’s proposal to construct a 10km pipeline through Ningaloo Marine Park to offshore oil rigs.
Western Australia’s Exmouth Gulf is a critical biodiversity hotspot, home to marine life including dugongs and humpback whales, and is inextricably linked with the nearby World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef.
Subsea 7’s proposal would have seen pipelines, measuring up to 10km in length, dragged through biologically sensitive Ningaloo Marine Park with ballast chains out to oil rigs right next to the protected reef.
The proposal was strongly opposed by the local community and people across Australia; with concerns it could put important whale nurseries at risk and impact a marine area up to 1,000 football ovals in size.
EDO worked closely with community groups, including the Australian Marine Conservation Society to challenge the plan through its environmental approvals process, including its assessment by WA’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).
The proposal was put on hold while the EPA conducted a study of cumulative environmental impacts on the Gulf, and in a huge win for marine life and the community, Norwegian company Subsea 7 ultimately abandoned its controversial plan.
Safeguarding Tasmanian Wilderness
In 2021, Tasmania’s Supreme Court overturned a decision to grant a permit for a controversial helicopter-accessed tourism project in a Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
Lake Malbena is part of a remote and ancient landscape. The pristine lake area is an internationally recognised icon important to Tasmanian First Nations communities, conservationists, bushwalkers and anglers. A private tourism company proposed to use and develop Halls Island on Lake Malbena for luxury accommodation, with guests exclusively accessing the site by private helicopter.
This proposal would have turned a Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage site over to a private developer, at the expense of the environment and contrary to the community’s wishes.
The proposal was originally refused by the local Central Highlands Council in 2019, but the tourism operator appealed that decision. The case eventually ended up in the Tasmanian Supreme Court and then the Full Court of the Supreme Court.
We represented The Wilderness Society (Tasmania), the Tasmanian National Parks Association, and two individuals in the successful Supreme Court challenge, ending a lengthy legal process to safeguard Hall’s Island’s pristine beauty.
The Full Court of the Tasmanian Supreme Court ordered that the Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal reconsider its 2019 decision to issue a planning permit for the Wild Drake Pty Ltd luxury tourism proposal. The court also ordered the Respondents to pay the Appellants costs of the appeal.
Defending Girramay National Park and the Great Barrier Reef
In the spectacular Hinchinbrook region, we assisted our long-standing client Kenn Parker to protect the Girramay National Park and the Great Barrier Reef from harmful acid sulphate run-off coming from the now neglected Port Hinchinbrook Marina Resort development.
The Girramay National Park is next to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, which is home to unique and threatened species such as dugongs and green turtles and supports half the world’s diversity of mangroves.
Before the marina was neglected, large-scale dredging and mangrove removal work had begun to make way for an all-tides, 250-berth marina and boat-ramp. But spoil ponds designed to capture material unsettled by dredging, such as acid sulphate soils, had failed. These ponds were releasing run-off into the Girramay National Park and Southern Wet Tropics, harming habitat for the threatened southern cassowary and the mahogany glider and posed a significant threat to the Reef’s delicate ecosystem.
As a result of our investigations and legal interventions, the Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation issued an Environmental Protection Order to the owner of the failed resort to fix the spoil ponds to prevent further acid sulphate run-off. The department was also required to continue to monitor the site for any additional environmental harm.
Protecting our shared climate
In 2022, in a huge win for climate and human rights, the Land Court of Queensland found Clive Palmer’s proposed Galilee Coal Project should be rejected. This was the first time an Australian coal mine was challenged on human rights grounds.
Our clients, Youth Verdict and The Bimblebox Alliance, fought long and hard to stop this mine from destroying culture, climate, and wildlife.
Our clients argued coal from the mine would impact the human rights of First Nations Peoples by contributing to dangerous climate change.
They also argued the mine would destroy the Bimblebox Nature Refuge which sits on top of the proposed mine site, on Wangan and Jagalingou Country.
This case was the first time an Australian court heard evidence against a coal mine on-Country and according to First Nations protocols. It is also the first time the Land Court was welcomed to Country as part of a hearing for a mining objection.
Our people
Our team of dedicated and expert lawyers, scientists, communicators and support staff are our most valuable resource in our critical fight to defend the environment.
Our people
Our team of dedicated and expert lawyers, scientists, communicators and support staff are our most valuable resource in our critical fight to defend the environment.
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EDO people work in every state and territory of Australia. We provide a supportive and inclusive work environment underpinned by the values of Commitment, Diversity, Integrity and Vision.
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EDO recognises the traditional owners and custodians of the land, seas and rivers of Australia. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders past and present, and aspire to learn from traditional knowledge and customs so that, together, we can protect our environment and cultural heritage through law.