Class Action on behalf of the Banjima People – holding those responsible for the largest deadly contamination site in the southern hemisphere to account.
Gordon Legal acts for BNTAC, the Aboriginal Corporation which represents the Banjima people.
Banjima Country has been poisoned by the infamous Wittenoom asbestos mines and the generations-long failure to clean it up. For decades, asbestos waste was dumped on the side of the gorges in the Wittenoom area, leaving mountains of carcinogenic asbestos tailings exposed to the elements.
Consequently, the health of the Banjima people has been jeopardised for generations and led to Indigenous people in Western Australia having the highest rate of mesothelioma (the cancer with the lowest survival rate) for any group anywhere in the world.
Gordon Legal has been instructed to hold those responsible to account.
Poisoning Banjima Country – a Timeline
1930s
Lang Hancock stumbled upon blue asbestos in Wittenoom Gorge, on the Mulga Downs property.
1950 – 1970
Thousands of immigrants and local workers are sent to Wittenoom to mine the asbestos. Three thousand miners and members of their families die from asbestos-related diseases. Wittenoom is closed and abandoned in 1966. The Banjima people are exposed to the deadly asbestos dust on their own land.
1985
Peter Gordon won the first negligence case on behalf of people suffering from asbestos-related cancers. The legal fight continues over the next 15 years seeking compensation for those people who got sick from toxic dust.
1990
Legal cases related to Wittenoom gained public attention following Midnight Oil’s song, Blue Sky Mine, as it reached the top of the Australian music charts.
2006
First reports from the Government of Western Australia outlining the need and possibility of cleaning up Wittenoom. To this day, all suggestions and campaigns for remediation have not been acted on.
2022
The remaining residents of the Wittenoom townsite were evicted and much of the town was buried by the Western Australian Government.
2025
Yurlu | Country screens across Australia, documenting Maitland Parker’s struggle to clean up Wittenoom.
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