Western Australia Allows Shale Gas Fracking

Western Australian has allowed fracking of shale gas wells for oil and gas companies.

The state government has rejected the appeal of state's Conservation Council to stop the drilling.

Companies want to frack wells within 300km of the Perth market given existing pipelines close by.

Companies exploring in the Perth Basin are AWE, Transerv Energy and Norwest Energy. 

Shale gas fracking has not attracted the same level of criticism as coal seam gas has received in Australia.