Family of late Banjima elder Maitland Parker have taken his fight to clean up the asbestos-laden gorges of Wittenoom to the United Nations.
Family of late Banjima elder Maitland Parker have taken his fight to clean up the asbestos-laden gorges of Wittenoom to the United Nations.
And an emotion-charged documentary to be released early next year will feature some of Mr Parker’s final words in a 2023 interview during which he decries “all this rubbish, all these tailings, making country sick”.
The two measures are part a growing effort to build global pressure on the state government to rehabilitate the largest contaminated site in the southern hemisphere.
It also comes ahead of foreshadowed legal action by Traditional Owners in a case expected to centre around denial of rights under Native Title to care for Country.
Speaking to the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday night, Banjima Native Title Aboriginal Corporation director Johnnell Parker said asbestos had left her family in a constant state of fear.
“When family find out they have the sickness from Wittenoom they say to me ‘I got a little bit of Wittenoom in me’,” she said.
“The buildings may have been buried but the legacy of the pain and hurt our families have and continue to suffer is forever.
“We always worry who is the next elder who won’t be sitting around our table”.
Banjima elder Tim Parker told the Council his people’s pleas to clean up Wittenoom had been ignored for two decades
“It is not just Wittenoom gorge, it is right across the Hammersley Ranges, it is opposite where I live.
“We have significant areas in those gorges we would like to share and tell stories about with our children and grandchildren.
“It is very important for our future generations to hear that from us before we leave.”
Mr Parker said Maitland was the third generation of his family to die of causes related to Wittenoom’s asbestos tailings.
The state government has to date refused to publicly acknowledge it has at least three reports in its hands which cost the clean up of Wittenoom and canvass methods to undertake the task.
Business News has seen excerpts of those reports which in 2013 laid out a $153 million cost and suggested encapsulation as a preferred method of remediation.
The documentary, put together by filmmaker Yaara Bou Melhem, contains raw footage of Maitland and his widow Marjorie Parker at the hospital being shown the extent of his tumour months before dying of asbestosis.
It also follows Maitland dressed in a hazmat suit visiting Wittenoom where he speaks candidly of his “devastation”.
“I am a bloody 70-year-old man, I still cry for Country,” he says as he stands atop the gorges.
“Anybody, whether Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, need to talk about it and make government accountable.”
Maitland’s daughter Coreen Parker said she feared for her family members living on Country at Youngaleena community just up the road from Wittenoom.
“We really need that area to be cleaned up and that Country to be healed for future generations to come back to country,” she said.
“Wittenoom we cannot enter, it is too dangerous… for us Banjima people.
“The biggest focus was dad wanted that place cleaned up before we lose more of our family members.”
During the meeting UN special rapporteur Marcos Orellana submitted a report on toxic substances in Australia to the Council.
Mr Orellana shared a further glimpse into the government’s knowledge of the matter, noting it had conducted engineering reports which found if the tailings piles were not stabilised they would spread out in the landscape for hundreds of years and had already contaminated areas outside the 46,000-hectare exclusion zone.
Business News revealed this week the state government was probing concerns the tailings had seeped into pools in Millstream-Chichester National Park, which is a popular swimming spot and is home to Karratha’s drinking water source.
While the tailings were mainly the fault of building products company CSR which ran the asbestos mines at their peak, reports have determined it is the state government’s responsibility to clean them up.
The asbestos mines were founded by WA mining pioneers Lang Hancock and Peter Wright, who also bought the mines back from CSR in 1966 in a failed bid to build the area into a major industrial hub.
Asbestos exposure is believed to have killed more than 2,000 people who have been in contact with Wittenoom and is still having an impact on the Shire of Ashburton’s budget to this day.
The Department of Planning, Lands, and Heritage has argued it is unlikely to be feasible to remediate Wittenoom.
