MEDIA RELEASE
Alcoa was granted an Exemption Order in December 2023 to allow its bauxite strip mining activities to continue in the Northern Jarrah Forest while its Mining Management Plan was under review by the WA state government.
The Exemption Order included conditions that restricted mining activities within 10 metres of trees with nesting hollows used by Baudin’s, Red-tailed, and Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos for breeding and nesting purposes.
In December 2025, Greens MP Jess Beckerling personally identified a potential breach of this condition and referred the issues to the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) and the Minister for Environment.
Her on the ground investigations found the mining impact area for a Jarrah tree meeting the definition of a ‘Huntly Mine Black Cockatoo Significant Tree’ located at 32⁰25’55’’S, 116⁰04’02’’E to be far less than 10 metres.
The tree had a circumference of 686cm at breast height and the distance from the base of the tree to the nearest edge of the blasting disturbance was between 890cm and 920cm. After a site inspection, Ms. Beckerling supplied satellite images, along with the measurements of the tree and distance to mining impact areas.
The End Forest Mining (EFM) alliance, including the Conservation Council of WA (CCWA), WA Forest Alliance (WAFA) and The Wilderness Society (TWS) is backing the MP’s call for the state government to immediately withdraw the mining exemption if Alcoa is found to be in breach.
CCWA Executive Director Matt Roberts said it was critical to put a halt to Alcoa’s bulldozers in order to prevent further devastation of critical nesting and foraging habitat in trees which have developed over centuries.
“Too often we see instances of isolated trees being retained, while whole surrounding ecosystems are stripped away and left completely barren. At best it’s a token gesture, at worst it’s a deliberate ploy to skirt around the edges of the most basic of environmental obligations,” Mr Roberts said.
“Alcoa’s expansion plans before the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for approval would see the equivalent of a further 27 Kings Parks bulldozed to extract bauxite in and around Perth’s drinking water catchment.
“This is a US-based company which has already bulldozed more than 28,000ha of our precious Northern Jarrah Forest over the past 60 years.”
WAFA Director Jess Boyce said the EPA’s public comment period on Alcoa’s mining last year generated over 59,000 submissions, many of them signatures to a submission by the EFM Alliance calling for an end to its bauxite mining operations in the Darling Range.
“This level of public objection is unprecedented and sends a clear signal that West Australians are united in their disgust at the ongoing decimation of the only jarrah forest on the planet, home to a host of endangered species including our beloved black cockatoos,” Ms Boyce said.
“The tree in question has died, likely as a result of such close disturbance. Alcoa was told to protect magnificent habitat trees of this kind because of their undeniable importance for black cockatoo breeding. The required 10m buffer was minimal, but still Alcoa could not get it right.
“If, as seems evident, Alcoa has broken the exemption order; they have been caught out, and the exempted mining must be halted immediately.
The Wilderness Society’s WA Campaigns Manager Alyx Douglas said that despite a global legacy of irrefutable ecological damage in places like the Amazon and America, the state and federal governments continue to offer Alcoa a regulatory ‘hall pass’ in the Northern Jarrah Forest.
“Since receiving its 2023 Exemption Order, Alcoa has been caught piping PFAS over critical water catchments without authorisation, compromised conservation efforts by failing to share critical black cockatoo data, jeopardised Perth’s drinking water, and faced a landmark greenwashing reprimand for deceptive rehabilitation claims,” Ms Douglas said.
“This latest breach coincides with an increase in rhetoric around gallium extraction—a byproduct of Alcoa’s bauxite mining.
“Just this week we saw the federal government name the mining and stockpiling of the element gallium as a priority under its Critical Minerals Reservation Strategy. This follows Alcoa’s announcement last year to develop a gallium plant at its Wagerup refinery, supported by federal government funding in collaboration with the Trump administration.
“The government needs to stop making exemptions for corporate profits and political interests and start protecting the only jarrah forest in the world.”
For further details please contact:
Jess Boyce | Director WA Forest Alliance | 0410 412 254 | jess.boyce@wafa.org.au
John Cooke | Media Advisor | Conservation Council of WA I 0433 679 780 | John.cooke@ccwa.org.au