Moyne Shire fights seismic testing in Otway Basin

Cr Jordan Lockett raised the issue in a formal notice of motion at the monthly council meeting on July 25.

Cr Lockett has campaigned for many years on environmental issues and told his colleagues the council couldn't stay silent on the testing proposed for its doorstep.

"We have been flooded with emails (with) concerns from our community," Cr Lockett said.

"Our community clearly wants us to oppose this... I plead with councillors to listen to our community."

The Bass Strait has been plumbed for oil and gas since the 1960s but the western Otway Basin was only tapped in 2005 and seismic testing has become a regular feature of its continued exploitation by fossil fuel giants.

The testing involves blasting the sea floor with high-powered air guns at 10-second intervals and measuring the echoes to map potential reserves lying beneath the rock.

Local fishermen and community groups like Fight for the Bight Port Fairy held a protest on July 23, saying the testing disturbs, harms and potentially kills marine life, but a lack of scientific studies means the scale of the effects is unknown.

US oil and multinational ConocoPhillips plans to conduct testing across thousands of square kilometres of ocean floor off the coast of Port Fairy, Warrnambool and Port Campbell as soon as late 2023.

Under Cr Lockett's notice of motion, the council will formally oppose the seismic testing and write to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the federal government to ask no future exploration permits are issued for the region.

A federal parliamentary inquiry into seismic testing reported in June 2021 to recommend the development of lower-impact mapping technologies because of the ecological damage it may be causing.

Mayor Karen Foster said the inquiry had made compelling reading.

"The senate inquiry acknowledges that we're just scratching the surface of understanding what seismic testing does... However we have got some snatches of information to show the potential damage is catastrophic," Cr Foster said.

She cited changes in commercial fishing catches off Gippsland one month after seismic testing had been done: flathead catches decreased by 71 per cent and school whiting catches dropped by 99.5 per cent.

"If that's not a catastrophic impact, I don't know what is," Cr Foster said.

The Otway Basin is well beyond the shire's jurisdiction and the council has no decision-making power over resource exploration permits but Moyne would be joining the Surf Coast and Colac Otway shires in a growing symbolic local government front against fossil fuel exploration in the area.

Cr Foster said the council's lack of jurisdiction on the issue didn't mean it was powerless.

"As councillors I don't think we should underestimate the value and the power of standing up for what we believe to be right," she said.

Fight for the Bight Port Fairy spokesman Ben Druitt addressed the meeting to list the local community's concerns.

"Seismic testing is all risk and no reward for our shire," he said.

Cr Lockett said Moyne already had more than 400 wind turbines throughout the shire with 400 more on the way and it was unacceptable to also carry the can for the fossil fuel industry.

"Gas and oil is killing the planet," he said.

"We are already carrying the brunt of renewables, we will not carry the brunt of gas and oil."

Cr Damian Gleeson said he would support the motion, largely because he wanted to help protect the region for future generations.

"Cr Lockett referred to the number of children present the other day (at the Fight for the Bight protest), so as an impending 60-year-old I need to think about the future for those kids," Cr Gleeson said.

Cr Jim Doukas "reluctantly" opposed the motion, saying he didn't disagree with it per se but worried obstacles to gas exploration would push power prices higher.

The motion passed 5-1.