Last winter I went up and had a look at the place to see what all the fuss was about. It was the best time of year to see it and I would assume that what I saw was as good as it gets, but,...I had to agree with Col when he made the polite statement about James Price point, that it was "nice but unremarkable".
I thought that was being overly generous.
It was not all that "nice."
10 km south around Quongdong point is very nice, 10 km north is nice. 180 km north around Cape Leveque in nice, but James Price Point is NOT nice.
It was the most un-nice part of the whole coast up the Dampier peninsula.
I came to the conclusion that if a gas hub had to go somewhere, this was as good a place to put it as any.
The fact is, wherever they put something like this, someone is going to complain.
There is absolutely nowhere in australia that you could build something like this and have total agreement that it was a great place for it.
The other fact is that while we are living a life which demands more energy and resources for everything then it will have to go somewhere.
The day we all get rid of our cars and houses and 120cm liquid cleverdick tv's then perhaps we can shout a bit louder over what price we have to pay.
At the moment, the price is that some of the less nice places will have to be temporarily sacrificed.
And it is temporary.
When the gas runs out or we find a better option, then the area will once again revert to a "nice but unremarkable" stretch of coast.
Ngaru, if I went to the meeeting I would be shouting support for Col.