Articles by: Martin Pritchard

Author Biography:

Martin has been working to safeguard the natural environment for over 20 years, protecting endangered species, rivers, threatened ecosystems and Ramsar-listed wetlands in South West WA and the Kimberley. In partnership with Traditional Owners and other conservation organisations he has led EK’s efforts to have 30,000 km² of the Kimberley coast secured in marine parks, to stop a coal mine on the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, a copper mine at the Horizontal Falls, as well as to prevent Walmadany / James Price Point from being destroyed by one of the world’s biggest gas factories which would’ve led to the wholesale industrialisation of the Kimberley. He advocated, with the leadership of Traditional Owners, for the National Heritage listing of 19 million hectares of the West Kimberley, World Heritage listing for the Kimberley where Traditional Owners want it, new National Parks along the Martuwarra, as well as for the protection of its surface water from being taken for irrigation. Martin joined Environs Kimberley in 2008 as the Executive Director.

The end of Australia’s last free river?

The Martuwarra is still alive: culturally, ecologically and politically, as a site of resistance to the idea that every river must submit to extraction. In an age of climate instability, protecting a free-flowing river is a test of whether we can act with restraint, learn from past damage and share power with those who know a river is more than water moving downhill