Community

Community

Westside actively participates in the local communities in which it operates, including corporate donations and sponsorships in the local area including the Moura Coal and Country Festival.

Landholders

Westside also works closely with local landholders and associated stakeholders and regularly communicates with the community through its land liaison team and local management. With a dedicated land liaison team, Westside continues to conduct its operations with a view to maintaining a long and collaborative relationship with the owners and occupiers of the land where its activities are conducted.

The landholders in our operational areas typically have a long history of working their properties, sometimes spanning generations.

Their agricultural activities range from grazing to intensive cropping. Our goal has been to work constructively and proactively with landholders to minimise the impact on their livelihood and lifestyle.

As part of our commitment to building and maintaining trusting and enduring relationships, Westside holds meetings to brief landholders and stakeholders  about Westside’s future development plans.  These meetings provide opportunities to build relationships between Westside staff and the community while allowing Landholders to raise any concerns

We have a well-developed land access framework which includes a Land Access Policy, Land Access Golden Rules and Land Access Induction and Training.

 

Westside’s approach to land access is based on:

  • engaging comprehensively with each landholder/occupier within the project area prior to any activity on their land;
  • working towards outcomes that, wherever possible, benefit both parties; and
  • locating and scheduling project activities to reduce the impacts on landholder activities.

 

Westside’s Land Access Policy includes the following actions to ensure that best practice is upheld in relation to land access:

  • Liaise closely with our stakeholders in good faith and keep information about the landholder’s operations confidential.
  • Respect the rights, privacy, property and activities of the landholder when planning or undertaking operations on or near their property.
  • Ensure all employees and contractors are adequately trained in their obligations under the Land Access Code.
  • Advise our landholders of Westside’s intended activities on their property, well in advance of the activity being undertaken.
  • Minimise potential damage to the landholder’s property improvements, including vegetation or the land.
  • Identify, record and rectify any damage caused to land or property, as soon as possible.
  • Pay compensation within the agreed timeframes.
  • Accept responsibility for the actions of employees and contractors.
  • Abide by the Land Access Code.

Traditional owners

Westside is committed to ongoing communications and consultation with the traditional owners in all areas of operation.

For its petroleum leases in the Greater Meridian fields, Westside has entered into voluntary Cultural Heritage Investigation and Management Agreements with the traditional owners. The agreements formalise the company’s ongoing commitment to the protection and management of cultural heritage within the tenements.

In New Zealand, Westside works with the traditional landowners of its sites, the Ngati Ruanui people (iwi).