The purpose of the Instructions is to assist referrers to provide the necessary information in their Referral Form.

The referrer of a proposal should provide the information in the form provided to the EPA to enable them to determine whether the proposal is a valid referral and whether or not to assess it.

This version on the instructions and form has been updated to reflect the EPA's new Environmental Impact Assessment Practice Guide Assessment of Proposals in Western Australia under Part IV of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (EIA Practice Guide), which comes into effect on 1 January 2026.

The EIA Practice Guide implements a streamlined method of providing the EPA the necessary information for decision-making and assessment, achieved by providing a single assessment document (an Environmental Review Document) that will now cover both the referral and assessment stages. An Environmental Review Document (ERD) is now required with a referral, and the EIA Practice Guide and the Instructions on how to prepare an ERD provide more information on how to prepare an ERD during the referral stage. The Referral Form has been simplified to reflect this new requirement.