A woman known as Joana Partyka standing in an art gallery holding her hand to the wall next to a painting of a man sitting on a log in the Australian bush (a Frederick McCubbin painting called ‘Down on His Luck’). The artwork has been spray-painted with yellow spray paint with a yellow Woodside logo.
Joana Partyka spray-painted Frederick McCubbin’s painting ‘Down on His Luck’ with a yellow Woodside logo. Credit: Supplied, Disrupt Burrup Hub.

Disrupt Burrup Hub: Campaign Evaluation

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Introduction

The Disrupt Burrup Hub (DBH) campaign is a direct action campaign that is primarily targeting Woodside Energy projects at Murujuga on the Burrup Peninsula.

This report has been prepared on behalf of Disrupt Burrup Hub by the Commons Social Change Library. The report is intended to provide an analysis of the campaign’s activities from 2023-24.

Findings and discussion are primarily drawn from interviews with 10 core Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners. These interviews have been anonymised to allow campaigners to speak honestly about their experiences in the group. In addition to these interviews, a rough analysis of the campaign’s strategy documents, and media coverage was undertaken. Both internal elements of the campaign and its strategic capacity, as well as external measures of the campaign’s outcomes and influence have been considered.

This report is not designed to be an objective assessment of the campaign’s success or failure, but rather provide an internal tool for discussion, helping the campaign team to reflect on their experiences and make plans for the future.

It is being published publicly here, with the consent of Disrupt Burrup Hub, in order to help share the lessons from the campaign with other activists and organisers around Australia and globally. 

I think one really good key thing is that we were just a crew of people who got together and did it, and I think that has been visible in the public narrative as well… It’s like anyone can do this, you have the power. I think we’ve shown that, and we have shown that you don’t have to, or you can’t necessarily leave it to the big NGOs, it’s now or never. If you feel passionate about something, do it, do what we’ve done, give it your best crack. – DBH interview participant

Context of Disrupt Burrup Hub

Woodside’s Burrup Hub includes several interconnected gas projects, such as: the Scarborough and Browse offshore gas fields, and a 50 year extension to the North West Shelf onshore gas processing facility. It’s been estimated the project will emit over 6.1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, equalling the impact of around 35 coal fire power stations across 50 years. 

In recent years, Woodside has often talked about these projects in isolation, meaning the full scale of the damage would not be readily visible for scrutiny. Members of the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign have argued that for a period of time the WA climate movement followed Woodside’s lead, focusing campaigning on individual projects rather than Burrup Hub as a whole. This is one of the problems the campaign sought to rectify: bringing back attention to the full scale and massive polluting potential of the Burrup Hub.

In doing so, Disrupt Burrup Hub followed the work of the First Nations-led campaign “Save Our Songlines” in giving a profile to the massive damage that Woodside’s projects at Murujuga will do, not only to ecosystems, but also to important cultural heritage, as Murujuga is home to over a million ancient rock engravings. 

WA campaigners have a strong precedent in opposing Woodside’s developments, with the James Price Point (Walmadan) campaign forcing Woodside to abandon a massive gas plant and port in 2013.  

Key Lessons from the Disrupt Burrup Hub Campaign

Disrupt Burrup Hub has been a small but powerful campaign in the broader Western Australian climate movement.

In a short amount of time and against a particularly hostile political environment, the campaign has managed to achieve a great deal for the issue.

There are valuable lessons from this campaign for activists across the Australian climate movement. Some of the lessons pointed to in the report are:

  1. When the issue is out of view, the campaign needs to find creative ways to get coverage
  2. Use a direct target to tell a powerful story
  3. Plan and rehearse actions carefully, and give time for debriefs afterwards
  4. Be willing to change organisational structures as the campaign grows to prevent concentration of leadership and activist burnout
  5. Building trust is important when engaging in nonviolent direct action
  6. Stick to the plan but be ready to pivot as circumstances change

Report Contents

  • Introduction
  • Strategic Capacity of the Group/Campaign
    • Goals
    • Targets
    • Escalating tactics
    • Tactical Choices
    • Creating Dilemmas and a Backfire Effect Through Tactics
    • Mobilisation and building mass support
  • Governance, Decision-Making and Organisational Capacity
  • Leadership and Skills Development
  • Outcomes and Influence
    • Branding the Burrup: Increasing community awareness
    • Damaging Woodside’s social licence
    • Material disruption: Blocking Browse and ending industrial expansion at Murujuga
  • What’s next for the Disrupt Burrup Hub Campaign?
  • Key Lessons from the Disrupt Burrup Hub Campaign
  • Conclusion

Read the Report

Disrupt Burrup Hub: Campaign Evaluation (PDF)

Useful Resources to Facilitate Learning

The report recommends several resources to facilitate learning from the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign:

Governance and Leadership Development

Strategies and Tactics

Case Studies

Evaluation

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