#dropwoodside takeover of WA Museum Boola Bardip
Extinction Rebellion Australia, 6 Feb 2026
XRWA are proud to be part of the new Drop Woodside campaign, sparked by an exciting action on Feb 1 at Boola Bardip by the Voices For Climate Collective and friends from the Boorloo climate action community.
Protesters took over the museum’s main public space to demand the trustees of WA Museum drop the toxic sponsorship by Woodside. The choir sang ‘The Seed’ by Aurora, with Madeleine Antoine playing violin. Desmond Burton (shown above) attended. Other climate groups involved in making the action happen included Disrupt Burrup Hub, WA Grandparents for Climate Action and The Selfless Orchestra. Please log in to Facebook to see the video.
Also see XR WA Facebook page.
The Woodside Campaign Launch is on Tuesday 17 February 7-9pm at Earthwise, 315 Bagot Road, Subiaco, WA. See the Facebook Event
This is not an XRWA campaign but members of XRWA and other climate organisations will be amongst the people involved.
Sign the Drop Woodside petition
In the meantime XRWA is offering Intro sessions to find out about XR and how we work. Check the events listed on xrwa.earth and go to Join to sign up for the XRWA infrequent newsletter.
In September 2025, the head of the Western Australian Museum told staff “almost all of us are guilty” of burning fossil fuels.
The museum has been widely criticised for extending the 28-year partnership with Woodside while a record-breaking marine heatwave killed corals over a 1,500km stretch of ocean.
According to front-page advertisements in WA media, the new deal with the gas giant provides further support for the museum’s biodiversity research along the WA coastline,
The deal coincided with the release of research about the extent of the damage caused by a record-breaking, climate-change fuelled marine heatwave to the state’s coral reefs.
The WA Greens fossil fuels and climate action spokesperson, Sophie McNeill, expressed concern that children visiting museums to learn about oceans were being exposed to branding from “the very same fossil fuel giant that is contributing to the death of our coral reefs”.
Sophie said “It is deeply alarming that our precious institutions here in WA are so deeply captured, just like the WA Labor government, by fossil fuel companies like Woodside.”
The Conservation Council of WA believes the museum, as a state government institution, should reject the extended sponsorship arrangement.
The executive director, Matt Roberts, said “If there is funding required the government should show some leadership and actually put up the money and ensure that important research is still continuing.
“So that we’re not relying on the very industry that is causing our marine systems to be on the brink of collapse to fund the research into that collapse.”