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Department of Agriculture

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  2. Environment
  3. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)
  4. Assessing major projects for approval under the EPBC Act

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Assessing major projects for approval under the EPBC Act

We're working with state and territory governments to reduce assessment time frames for 15 major projects. These projects are of economic or strategic significance to Australia. The projects have been referred for assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

In 2020, the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment announced the Australian Government would work with the states and territories to reduce the assessment and decision time frames for 15 major projects under the EPBC Act.

Each of the projects is of national economic or strategic significance. Together, they'll provide an estimated $72 billion in public and private investment. They will also support tens of thousands of jobs across Australia.

We're working with states and territories to establish joint assessment teams for these projects. The teams will work to reduce duplication in assessment processes between both levels of government.

This process will reduce the assessment and decision times for the projects. However, the projects are still subject to the same requirements under the EPBC Act as all referred projects. Learn about our assessment process.

List of major projects

  • Road infrastructure WA (Western Australia): MainRoads WA is managing a series of road projects that will provide transport corridors to regional centres and reduce congestion.
  • Perth Airport upgrades (Western Australia): Perth Airport is proposing to develop a new runway to reduce delay costs to airlines and passengers and increase tourism potential.
  • M12, Western Sydney Freeway link (New South Wales): Transport for NSW is proposing to construct a new 16 km east-west motorway. The motorway will run from the M7 motorway at Cecil Hills to the Northern Road at Luddenham. It will connect the Western Sydney International Airport to other employment and population centres.
  • Sydney Metro Greater West, Western Sydney Airport Rail link (New South Wales): Transport for NSW is developing a new metro line to service the new Western Sydney Airport from St Mary’s to the airport and beyond. The rail will become the Western Parkland City’s transport spine, linking residential areas with job hubs and the new Western Sydney International Airport.
  • Inland Rail (Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland): The Australian Rail Track Corporation is managing the Inland Rail project that will provide transit times of less than 24 hours for freight trains between Melbourne and Brisbane, via regional Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
  • Coffs Harbour Bypass (New South Wales): Transport for NSW is proposing to upgrade approximately 14 km of the Pacific Highway at Coffs Harbour. The bypass seeks to improve connectivity, road transport efficiency and safety for local and interstate motorists.
  • Emergency town water projects (New South Wales): Water NSW is managing a series of projects to secure, or at least extend, critical human water supply to drought affected regional NSW towns. It will contribute to the longer-term drought resilience.
  • Snowy 2.0 (New South Wales): Snowy 2.0 is linking 2 existing dams, Tantangara and Talbingo, through 27 km of tunnels and building a new underground power station. This will reduce volatility in the electricity market, ensure reliability and help to bring down rising electricity costs.
  • Narrabri Gas Project (New South Wales): Santos is proposing to develop a coal seam gas field in the Gunnedah Basin of New South Wales. This project could supply half of the state's natural gas needs.
  • Burrup Hub (Western Australia): Woodside is proposing to link its existing gas processing facilities on the Burrup Peninsula (north of Karratha, Western Australia) with new gas resources, to create a regional liquefied natural gas (LNG) production centre to service both domestic and export markets.
  • Iron ore projects (Western Australia): Rio Tinto is proposing a significant expansion of mining operations at both new and existing iron ore mine sites.
  • Rail projects (Western Australia): METRONET is managing an integrated transport and land use framework that will support growth of the Perth metropolitan region over the next 50 to 100 years. It includes new rail and rail stations.
  • Olympic Dam extension (South Australia): BHP is proposing to expand its Olympic Dam mine that produces a range of materials including copper, uranium, gold and silver. Production at the mine would increase from 200,000 t per year of product to up to 350,000 t per year.
  • EnergyConnect (New South Wales and South Australia): EnergyConnect is proposing a high-voltage transmission line connection between the South Australian and New South Wales power grids.
  • Marinus Link (Tasmania and Victoria): Marinus Link is proposing a 1,500 MW capacity undersea and underground electricity connection. It will more strongly link Tasmania and Victoria as part of Australia’s future electricity grid.

Most decisions and notices issued under the EPBC Act are available at EPBC Act Public Notices.

We also publish some notices in the Government Gazette.

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Last updated: 04 March 2022

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We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.