Surfing’s big names join Bight oil fight

Thousands of surfers paddle out at Bells Beach to protest oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight.

Corangamite independent candidate Damien Cole with fellow activists Katie Griffin and Jessica Hickmott at Bells Beach yesterday. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

The fight to stop drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight is shaping up as the next big environmental battle to rival James Price Point in the Kimberley and Adani in Queensland.

Today, to mark the ninth anniversary of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the start of the Bells Beach surfing competition in Victoria, thousands are expected to paddle out in protest.

The waterborne demonstration has the support of some of the biggest names in world surfing, including three times world cham­pion Mick Fanning.

In the water will be protest organiser and independent hopeful, Damien Cole, who is taking the Bight fight to the marginal seat of Corangamite.

Mr Cole is based in Torquay, about 1500km from where the proposed Bight drilling program is planned.

But environmental disaster plans, showing a Deepwater Horizon-type spill in the Bight would affect coastline from Western Australia to Port Macquarie on the NSW north coast, have galvanised environmentalists worldwide.

The protest is being taken to Norway next month to the annual general meeting of state-owned oil company Equinor.

Equinor (formerly Statoil) was BP’s partner in the proposed Bight joint venture that has the potential for oil reserves to rival Bass Strait.

Equinor released a draft environment plan in February and is reviewing public comments before submitting a final environment plan for approval by the regulator, National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority.

Shareholders are being asked to pass a resolution to ban Equinor from starting exploration projects in frontier areas such as the Bight.

Mr Cole, who received 7.7 per cent of the vote in the Victoria state election last year, is taking the issue to the national poll.

The Corangamite electorate is held by Liberal MP Sarah Henderson on a wafer-thin margin and takes in Geelong as well as a big chunk of coastline along the Great Ocean Road. A recent redistribution has made Corangamite the most marginal Liberal-held seat in the country.

Neither Ms Henderson, nor her ALP opponent Libby Coker, have mentioned the Bight drilling in their election pitches.

Mr Cole, meanwhile, is getting the attention of big environmental organisations such as the Wilderness Society, which has led a long campaign against deepwater drilling in an area recognised for its pristine marine parks and whale migrations.