Save Whalers Way

The NCS has been fighting to save Whalers Way since we found out about plans to build a private rocket-launching facility there in 2020. 

Whalers Way is a wildlife sanctuary, protected as a Heritage Agreement under the Native Vegetation Act 1991, and home to a range of threatened species. It is simply the wrong place for this proposed industrial development. 

Our lobbying and campaigning has included: 

  1. Letters to Ministers, including former Environment Minister David Speirs 
  2. Submissions to public consultation processes, including to processes under State and Federal law
  3. An action in the Supreme Court challenging the multiple extensions to time that were granted to ‘test’ rocket launch from a ‘temporary’ facility.

We are currently awaiting decisions from Minister Champion and Minister Plibersek regarding whether or not approval will be granted. 

Photo by Fran Solly

The situation at Whalers Way demonstrates the failure of both State and Federal nature laws. The exclusions and loopholes that have lead to this point should be closed by a new Biodiversity Act in SA and reformed national environmental law.