This morning the Australian newspaper reported that traditional owners met with Woodside chief executive Don Voelte and other senior management in Perth last week.

The land council is negotiating with Japanese government-owned gas producer Inpex, which plans to build a liquefied natural gas plant on the Maret Islands.

The Woodside meeting, which the Australian reported was instigated by the KLC, was the first time the two parties have met since the land council told the company it would not be allowed to locate industrial development on the Kimberley coast two years ago.

The newspaper quoted KLC executive director Wayne Bergmann as saying the aim of the meeting was to reopen talks with the traditional owners at One Arm Point, north of Broome – one of several sites suggested as possible locations for an onshore plant to process the Browse Basin gas reserves, 200km off the Kimberley coast.

Woodside is also considering building the processing plant offshore at Scott Reef or piping the gas to the Burrup Peninsula, the site of the North West Shelf LNG project and Pluto gas project, now under construction.

In related news, World Wildlife Fund, Australian Conservation Foundation and Environs Kimberley have signed a joint agreement with the KLC acknowledging significant potential for beneficial outcomes for traditional owners from LNG and associated development.

But the agreement stipulated that cultural and environmental protection should be paramount in industrial growth along the Kimberley coast.