“They have bulldozers knocking over huge swathes of forest, destroying everything in and underneath the tree canopy,” said Dr Maureen Phillips, a passionate bush walker and member of the local ACF Community group.
Maureen is one of many locals who have been fighting hard to protect the precious Northern Jarrah forest from American mining company Alcoa’s destructive mining practices. Amongst many impacts, the mining process obliterates critical habitat for a number of threatened species including Forest Red-tailed, Carnaby’s and Baudin’s black cockatoos.
For years, Alcoa have been allowed to flatten this precious Jarrah forest without being held to account.
The EPA and environment ministers who are responsible for protecting the Jarrah forest are instead bringing the forest to its knees, accepting unsubstantiated claims from Alcoa that the jarrah forest can be regenerated.
Last month, federal Environment Minister Murray Watt signed off on a deal allowing them to continue destroying the Forest for their bauxite mining operations. Back in 2011, the Minister’s department told Alcoa that they needed to comply with Australia’s national nature protection law, but Alcoa disagreed and the department took no action to enforce the law.
Under this new deal in 2026, Alcoa has agreed to pay $55 million to attempt to fix some of the habitat destruction they’ve inflicted. While that sounds a lot to the average punter, it’s just a drop in the ocean for Alcoa who rake in much more than that in just one day. Read that again … less than they make in one day.
… less than they make in one day.
In return, Alcoa gets an unprecedented “national interest” exemption from the laws for 18 months, and an opportunity to get approval for their ongoing operations through to 2045.
This is all after a staggering 59,000 community members submitted their concerns to the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) outlining various environmental, health and economic concerns.
A recent study from Professor Kingsley Dixon, the Professor of Botany and Restoration at the University of Western Australia revealed that regeneration is not possible.
Local film director, Zena Williams interviewed Professor Kingsley Dixon about his report and findings.
“We published the first independent deep time study — can you restore the jarrah forest? The conclusion is that if you take away bauxite, you can’t put back a Jarrah forest. The forest evolved over 20 million years using bauxite,” the professor said.
“The science shows that whatever the claims are, they can’t be substantiated after 60 years of them trying.”
If you take away bauxite, you can’t put back a Jarrah forest. The forest evolved over 20 million years using bauxite.
As someone who spends time in this precious place, ACF community member Maureen painted a sad picture about the stark contrast between the untouched parts of the Jarrah forest and the “regenerated” sections.
When you compare that to the beautiful, mature jarrah forest it’s just devastating.
“In the 25-year regenerated area you can just see furrowed land and frail trees in rows. Nothing has grown properly. When you compare that to the beautiful, mature jarrah forest it’s just devastating.”
Even WA Premier Roger Cook has expressed disappointment over Alcoa’s regeneration attempts.
“Over a long period of time I think we’ve been disappointed with the performance of Alcoa when it comes to protecting the environment and rehabilitating the environment,” the Premier said.
So why after all this, is Alcoa allowed to continue mining, even while the issue is before the EPA?
Local film director, Zena Williams explained that the decision to continue strip mining the Jarrah forest has now been further complicated by an unprecedented use of national environmental laws.
“Murray Watt has allowed Alcoa to continue mining without environmental oversight as a ‘matter of National Interest’ due to the prospect of extracting gallium in the future. This decision followed a meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Donald Trump, where Albanese promised to supply critical minerals to the USA under a special partnership deal, including gallium,” Zena said.
The Jarrah Forest is being brought to its knees. This cannot continue. We need strong environmental standards that make it clear upfront what’s in and what’s out so this cannot happen again.