Strike Energy has bought 3500 hectares of farming land in Western Australia to develop a renewables and manufacturing hub that the Perth-based company believes can produce some of the lowest-carbon urea fertiliser in the world.

Marking a change in strategy, Strike – whose board is led by prominent Perth business figures John Poynton and Nev Power – on Tuesday revealed plans to build its $3 billion, 1.4 million tonnes per year urea plant, known as “project Haber”, on newly acquired farm land in the state’s Mid-West, rather than the former site closer to Geraldton.