The tiny, isolated town of Wittenoom in Western Australia has come before the U.N. Human Rights Council, as Aboriginal traditional owners step up their fight to have the state government clear asbestos contamination from the site.
At the foot of a deep gorge 15 hours’ drive northeast of Perth, the Pilbara town is blanketed in the deadliest type of asbestos, crocidolite. Although asbestos mining finished there 60 years ago, asbestos fibres have spread beyond the 46,000-hectare Wittenoom Asbestos Management Area (WAMA), with Banjima elder Tim Parker claiming in 2008 that “it is right across the Hammersley Ranges.” That has earned it the title of the largest contaminated area in the Southern Hemisphere.
It’s also been called “the world’s most dangerous town” and “Australia’s Chernobyl.” Melita Markey, CEO of the Asbestos Diseases Society, said air monitoring showed air around Wittenoom was “extraordinarily dangerous to human health” and joined the call for the state to take responsibility. “Mining companies going into beautiful areas around the world, leaving their mining waste behind for the indigenous people to deal with,” she said.
“And we’ve got the worst case in the world where mining companies went in and left a massive mess.” Since 1978, consecutive state governments have commissioned inquiries and reports and formed committees to examine the problem. But the land has remained polluted, with an estimated cost of at least $150 million to c.