Roger Cook says govt ‘has to act’ on Wittenoom asbestos fix

by Tom Zaunmayr (Business News)

WA Premier Roger Cook has given the strongest indication of any government to date that work could be undertaken to address Wittenoom’s asbestos tailings to prevent further spread into the environment.

His comments come amid renewed pressure from Traditional Owners to remediate the deadly asbestos tailings in Wittenoom and Yampire Gorges in the Pilbara, which have been sitting uncontained for nearly 60 years.

The Banjima Native Title Aboriginal Corporation has tabled a proposal with the state government to remediate Wittenoom and has warned it will take the state to court if it fails to act.

Mr Cook said the proposal was ambitious, but that he had tasked his “teams” with figuring out how the government can address the problem.

“This is not going to be a quick fix, this is not going to be a 12-month program,” he said.

“The way we will need to be able to address the issues of contamination in and around Wittenoom is going to be a multi-generational piece of work and we need to understand what those challenges are.

“We know the contamination is not contained and we know that ultimately we are going to have to act to actually address some of that contamination.”

Mr Cook’s comments come after decades of research and reports which have either been rejected or not been acted on, the most recent of which was presented in 2015 two years prior to Labor taking office.

Those reports have all made clear remediating Wittenoom’s asbestos tailings is technically possible, but that work would take up to 10 years to complete and would come at a large financial cost.

Amid the inaction to remediate the tailings, asbestos as been washed by wet season rains further into the landscape.

Two government documents from 2021 and 2023 seen by Business News show departmental concern about asbestos fibres having already been found in creek beds outside of the declared contamination zone.

“We have closed the town down, so many people are out of harm’s way, but the evidence seems to suggest the dust is continuing to spread,” Mr Cook said.

“There are some areas which are highly toxic, other areas where there are just fibres in general. They all represent a health risk.”

BNTAC will publicly release a film in November documenting late Banjima elder Maitland Parker’s final years as he fought to have Wittenoom cleaned up.

Mr Parker contracted mesothelioma through coming into contact with asbestos at Wittenoom while working as a park ranger at Karijini National Park.

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