A fresh bid to sell groundwater drawn from a bore in the Perth Hills has reignited a campaign against the practise, but a local orchardist says the survival of his business is hanging on the venture’s approval.
The application to extract 30,000 kilolitres of water a year from a privately owned stone fruit orchard in Pickering Brook comes six months after soda giant Coca-Cola drew considerable media scrutiny for extracting water from a site further south in Karragullen for its bottled products.
A group called Save Perth Hills Water has surfaced to tackle concerns around commercial water extraction in the region.Credit: Composite: Cameron Myles
While the Karragullen bore was located in an “unproclaimed groundwater area” – meaning there was no fee, and it is legal to take water – community pressure around the transparency of extraction volumes and impacts on the water table saw Coca-Cola hit pause on its operations in May.
Now, as a new, unrelated application has surfaced, so too has the community’s discontent.
In response to backlash, Pickering Brook stone fruit producer and water extraction applicant Graham O’Meagher told this masthead his orchard – along with its 100-tonne annual supply of local produce to the Perth market – would fail without the profits of the water sales.
“We may as well shut,” he said when asked what would happen in the event he wasn’t granted permission to extract water for sale.
O’Meagher said eight hectares of his orchard was currently not being watered while it was being redeveloped.
“We’re redeveloping the orchard, and we need to offset our income to get the whole patch up and running again,” he said.
“One way we can do that is to sell the water that would [otherwise] be going on the orchard.”
He said the plan was not intended to be indefinite, and would only exist until operations continued as normal, and said there were no discussions with any bottling company.
“We have no agreement with anybody, apart from ourselves, at the moment. I’ve got trucks capable of carting it, all we want is somehow to get a few bucks to carry on.”
In the case of the Karragullen bore, permission to extract water was first granted by the City of Armadale in 1992, with allowable water cartage expanded to a maximum of 14 truckloads carting 29,400 litres water each per week in 2003.
The company continued to operate relatively under the radar until mounting community pressure in 2024.
While Coca-Cola defended its operations, it voluntarily paused its operations.
“With all the messaging we’re getting from the Water Corporation about ‘every drop counts’, it’s pretty on the nose.”
Meg Travers, Save Perth Hills Water campaigner
In response to questions from this masthead on Tuesday, a Coca-Cola Europacific Partners spokesperson said there were no plans to recommence use of the Karragullen bore.
“We take community feedback seriously and are committed to managing our water resources responsibly and sustainably,” they said.
“At this time, we have no immediate plans to recommence the use of the Karragullen bore. Our decision to halt extraction was made to allow the aquifer to replenish to an appropriate level, and we continue to monitor the situation closely.”
But Meg Travers, the campaigner behind the Save Perth Hills Water Facebook page, questioned the sustainability of the practise and argued more ecological impact research was necessary.
“It’s wrong,” she said.
“It’s as simple as that – multinational companies are literally taking water, which is arguably our most precious natural resource, the source of life – out of the ground for free and selling it back to us.
“With all the messaging we’re getting from the Water Corporation about ‘every drop counts’, it’s pretty on the nose.”
Travers was also concerned the lure of money from big companies like Coca-Cola – who purchased the Kurragullen property in 2020 for more than $1.4 million – would set a precedent.
In a submission to the City of Kalamunda against the newest development application, Pickering Brook resident Casey Glover said taking water for irrigation and for bottling were not the same thing.
“Orchard irrigation recycles water locally through plant uptake, evapotranspiration, and soil infiltration, which maintains groundwater recharge and supports surface ecosystems,” she said.
“Extracting groundwater for bottling removes water permanently from the local system – Once bottled and transported, it cannot contribute to groundwater recharge or nearby waterways like Piesse Brook.”
Glover argued not enough was known about the long-term risks to the aquifer, and claimed an estimated two to three daily truck movements would increase noise pollution, road wear, and impact residents’ quality of life.
Darling Range Liberal candidate Paul Mansfield has also started a petition calling for an independent sustainability assessment and for better transparency on extraction data.
He also attended a community forum on Wednesday attended by more than 50 residents.
Credit: WA Liberals
“The WA Liberals fundamentally oppose any unsustainable water abstraction that harms local
communities and growers,” Mansfield said.
“Water is a precious resource, and its management must prioritise the needs of local residents and orchardists who depend on it.”
Public comment on the application closed on January 18, with Kalamunda Council expected to make its decision in the coming months.
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