Kemerton, Western Australia
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Wellesley is a locality in the Bunbury region of
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
, about 10 km north-east of
Australind Australind is a town in Western Australia, located 12 km north-east of Bunbury, Western Australia, Bunbury's central business district. Its Local government areas of Western Australia, local government area is the Shire of Harvey. At the 20 ...
. Its
local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...
is the
Shire of Harvey The Shire of Harvey is a local government area of Western Australia. Harvey is located in the state's South West region, approximately 140 km south of Perth, and includes some of Bunbury's northern suburbs. The shire covers an area of 1 ...
. It is bordered on the south and east by the Brunswick River and the Wellesley River. The main feature of the locality is the Kemerton Industrial Park.


Kemerton Industrial Park

The estate was established in 1985 as a "strategic industrial area" to provide appropriate buffered land for
heavy industry Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...
. It covers an area of 7543 ha, comprising an industrial core of 2100 ha, a support industry area of 300 ha, an inter-industry buffer of 175 ha and a buffer area of 5437 ha which includes bushland, wetland, protection zones and recreational areas. A rail link connecting with the Perth-Bunbury railway is proposed. It is coordinated by the Department of Industry and Resources (WA), South West Development Commission and the Shire of Harvey.


History

Little is known of the area prior to 1980 - a report in 1988 noted that (p. 9) "although mainly a rural area, a significant portion of the Kemerton site remains undeveloped", and there was "very little agricultural development other than the use of the land for seasonal grazing", possibly due to poor soils and inadequate drainage. The report noted a piggery and an abattoir, the latter of which is still in operation.


Proposed aluminium smelter

In 1980,
Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for "Aluminum Company of America") is an American industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary alu ...
commenced investigations into potential sites for an
aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...
smelter. Preliminary documentation given to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) indicated that three sites - Worsley Siding, Pinjarra and Kemerton - were preferred. Alcoa subsequently withdrew from the consortium. Shortly after the election of the
Burke Burke (; ) is a Normans in Ireland, Norman-Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (''circa'' 1160–1206) had the surname'' de B ...
Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
government, which had in December 1983 launched the "Bunbury 2000" strategy to develop the area, a new consortium, Kukje-ICC Construction trading as International Aluminium Consortium, ruled out Pinjarra as a site. In December 1984, the State Government acquired 3700 hectares of private land at Kemerton to act as a buffer, as the EPA had recommended Kemerton over Worsley Siding due to "fewer uncertainties of ecological interactions, a much better knowledge of potential implications and lower environmental risks". A detailed environmental impact assessment of a proposal by the consortium for a 230,000 tpa smelter was carried out in 1985, and Town Planning Scheme No.10 (Shire of Harvey) was amended to zone the land industrial, but the proposal was deferred indefinitely in 1987 for economic reasons.


Development of the Industrial Park

The rezoning and considerations led to other expressions of interest, and in 1988–1989, several other industries moved into the area and commenced operations, and a draft structure plan was submitted for State Government approval. A new consortium, led by Pennant/John Holland and Wardley Australia Ltd, proposed in February 1989 a single potline smelter with 20% less capacity than the 1985 proposal, but this did not proceed either. The Kemerton Steering Committee (later KIPCC) was formed in April 1989, and at around the same time, a trade magazine article claimed that Kemerton, with its integration of natural bushland, wetland and plantation forestry and an interpretative centre into the planning of the industrial park, "could well become a model for establishing industry as an acceptable land-user in sympathy with environmental values."


Industries

Some of the industries at Kemerton include: * Millennium Inorganic Chemicals (formerly SCM Chemicals until 1997), a Cristal company, manufactures
titanium dioxide Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium(IV) oxide or titania , is the inorganic compound derived from titanium with the chemical formula . When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 (PW6), or Colour Index Internationa ...
pigment using the chlorine process from
rutile Rutile is an oxide mineral composed of titanium dioxide (TiO2), the most common natural form of TiO2. Rarer polymorphs of TiO2 are known, including anatase, akaogiite, and brookite. Rutile has one of the highest refractive indices at vis ...
, or synthetic rutile made from locally mined
ilmenite Ilmenite is a titanium-iron oxide mineral with the idealized formula . It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray solid. Ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and the main source of titanium dioxide, which is used in paints, printi ...
. In 2004/05, 85,000 tonnes of pigment was produced at a value of approximately $300 million. The titanium dioxide pigment is then used in the production of paints, plastics, paper, rubber, printing inks, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The plant was established in 1990, and previously (as LaPorte/SCM) operated from Australind from 1964 to 1990 using a less environmentally palatable sulfate process producing 40,000 tonnes per year of TiO2.
BOC Limited
(previously CIG) operates an air separation unit in Kemerton to supply 280 tonnes per day of oxygen and nitrogen to Millennium. The plant has liquid storage onsite and serves the Kemerton Industrial Park through the nearby Bunbury Gas and Gear. * Nufarm-Coogee Pty Ltd, a joint venture between Nufarm Limited (80%) and Coogee Chemicals Pty Ltd (20%), operates a
chlor-alkali The chloralkali process (also chlor-alkali and chlor alkali) is an industrial process for the electrolysis of sodium chloride (NaCl) solutions. It is the technology used to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), which are commodit ...
plant to supply
chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between ...
to the local titanium dioxide processing industry, using about 40,000 tonnes of salt to produce about 20,000 tonnes of chlorine and 20,000 tonnes of
caustic soda Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations and hydroxide anions . Sodium hydroxide is a highly corrosive base and alkali t ...
(NaOH).
Simcoa Operations
owned since 1996 by the Japanese
Shin-Etsu Chemical is the largest chemical company in Japan. Shin-Etsu has the largest global market share for polyvinyl chloride, semiconductor silicon, and photomask substrates. “Shin-Etsu” in the company's name derives from Shin'etsu Region, where the comp ...
Company which has interests in
silicone In Organosilicon chemistry, organosilicon and polymer chemistry, a silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer composed of repeating units of siloxane (, where R = Organyl group, organic group). They are typically colorless oils or elastomer, rubber ...
manufacturing operations in Asia, operates the only
silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...
producing smelter in Australia. It was commissioned in 1989-90 by Barrack Mines, and in 2005, approximately 32,000 tonnes of premium grade silicon (predominantly 99.5% grade) was produced at an estimated value of $75 million. Silicon is used in the production of aluminium alloys, silicones and solar grade silicon wafers.
Silica fume Silica fume, also known as microsilica, (CAS number 69012-64-2, EINECS number 273-761-1) is an amorphous (non-crystalline) polymorph of silicon dioxide, silica. It is an ultrafine powder collected as a by-product of the silicon and ferrosilicon a ...
is also produced and sold as an additive for high-performance concrete
Kemerton Silica Sand
is a joint venture between the Japanese companies
Itochu Corporation is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo. It is one of the largest Japanese ''sogo shosha'' (general trading and investment companies) distinguished by the strength of its textile business and its suc ...
and Tochu Co Ltd, and has a
feldspathic Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocla ...
silica sand mine just north of the Kemerton Industrial Park. The bulk of the sand is suitable for the container glass and sheet glass industry in Japan and the Asian region, and the first shipment was despatched in July 1996. In 2004/05, 334,532 tonnes of silica sand were exported. *
Transfield Services Broadspectrum, formerly known as Transfield Services, was an Australian and New Zealand company that provided infrastructure maintenance services. Formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, and later owned by Ferrovial, it was then ...
opened the 260
megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
Kemerton Power Station (gas-fired with diesel backup) on 1 November 2005, delivering power to the
South West Interconnected System The South West Interconnected System (SWIS) is an electricity grid in the southwestern part of Western Australia. It extends to the coast in the south and west, to Kalbarri in the north and Kalgoorlie in the east. It is not connected to the othe ...
(SWIS) under a 25-year agreement with
Verve Energy Verve Energy was a Western Australian Government owned corporation responsible for operating the state's electricity generators on the state's South West Interconnected System (SWIS). It was split from the then vertically integrated Western ...
(an arm of WA's state power utility). The project was the first major privately owned power station to be constructed in Western Australia. A 30-year generation licence was granted under the Electricity Industry Act 2004 on 20 March 2006. Ownership of the power station transferred to
RATCH-Australia RATCH-Australia Corporation (RAC) is an Australian electricity generation company. It is a subsidiary of RATCH Group (formerly known as Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Company), a public company listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand ...
in July 2011. Verve Energy became party of
Synergy Synergy is an interaction or cooperation giving rise to a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts (i.e., a non-linear addition of force, energy, or effect). The term ''synergy'' comes from the Attic Greek word συνεργία ' f ...
in 2014. * The Water Corporation of Western Australia opened a $13 million waste water treatment plant in 2003, replacing two in nearby
Australind Australind is a town in Western Australia, located 12 km north-east of Bunbury, Western Australia, Bunbury's central business district. Its Local government areas of Western Australia, local government area is the Shire of Harvey. At the 20 ...
and Eaton and is capable of treating 3 million litres of waste water per day. Some of the treated water is recycled and used to water nearby tree farms. * Goodchild Abattoir Pty Ltd, a family-owned company, have operated an abattoir in the area since the late 1970s. 35,000 beef cattle and 225,000 sheep and lambs are processed each year.


References


External links


Kemerton homepage
{{Shire of Harvey towns Suburbs of Bunbury, Western Australia Shire of Harvey