Why #CleanUpWittenoom

The contamination at Ngambigunha, Wittenoom in the Pilbara of Western Australia on Banjima Country – is not history, it’s a living, toxic legacy. 

It has caused sickness, cultural loss, and environmental devastation that will continue to silently fester without action. 

From 1937 until 1966, successive asbestos miners dumped more than three-million tonnes of mine waste — known as ‘tailings’ — laced with deadly blue asbestos in the Wittenoom area. 

For the past 30 years, successive government inquiries recommended the clean-up of Wittenoom and even labelled the contamination ‘environmental vandalism’ of one of the most scenic areas of the State. 

Instead of fixing the contamination of our Country, in 2008 the Western Australian government declared the Wittenoom Asbestos Management Area (WAMA) — a 46,840-hectare exclusion area that is unsafe to access and unfit for human habitation. It’s a sacrifice zone more than half the size of Singapore on Banjima’s Native Title lands. 

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The cost to Banjima​

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For tens of thousands of years, Ngambigunha, Wittenoom has been home to Banjima.  

The creation story of Thoro, the serpent that formed the magnificent gorges that are iconic to Karijini National Park, is now disrupted at Ngambigunha, Wittenoom Gorge. 

This uninhabitable toxic site sits just seven kilometres — as the crow flies — from the Karijini Eco Retreat. 

In 2014, after decades in the courts, Banjima People achieved Native Title, but were handed back one of the most contaminated sites in the Southern hemisphere. We were handed back a site with toxic tailings, with no support, help or plan to fix it. The contamination is a violation of our Native Title rights. Banjima can no longer access cultural sites and conduct law safely in Ngambigunha. 

The contamination also breaches Article 29 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which states there should be no storage of hazardous materials on Indigenous lands without consent. 

There isn’t a Banjima family that hasn’t been touched by sickness from Wittenoom. Aboriginals in Western Australia have the highest rates of mesothelioma in the world. 

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A clean-up is possible - and has been done before

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There are precedents for clean-ups of toxic sites in Australia. These include the toxic Fiskville firefighting site in 2022 which had a clean-up bill of AUD 80 million. The Mr Fluffy asbestos clean-up in Canberra in 2014 cost over AUD $1bn. 

In 2022, the last remaining residents of Wittenoom town were evicted ahead of its demolition in 2023. The W.A. Government declared this was “an end to a dark period in our State's history.” 

This statement belies the ongoing harm that is being inflicted on Banjima. Burying the town may deter the thrill-seekers that flocked to the town in ghoulish disaster tourism, but the major source of asbestos contamination — the tailings dumps — remain. 

Now in an unacceptable risk to all communities, the contamination has spread outside the exclusion zone. 

This was entirely foreseeable and preventable. 

For decades, the government has known that asbestos contamination is spreading and, if left unchecked, will continue to do so “for hundreds of years.” 

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Enough is enough: 60 years of inaction

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2026 marks sixty years of inaction. Banjima are seeking a concrete commitment for the remediation of the tailings dumps. 

What we don’t want is for another report to be commissioned only for it to be unactioned. 

This is the year to commit to a clean-up ahead of the 60-year anniversary of the closure of the Wittenoom mines. It’s time for an answer to the inaction.