Traditional owners in Western Australia's north are reigniting the debate on who is responsible for cleaning up asbestos-contaminated Wittenoom, and raising concerns about potential mining in the area and a nearby national park.
The first custodians of the red-dirt country in the state's Pilbara region are the Banjima people, but their land is still scarred by mountains of asbestos tailings left by the historical mines near the ghost town.
That deadly mineral was mined in the area from the 1930s to 1966. Mining was started by the late tycoon Lang Hancock and later taken over by CSR.
Exposure to the mineral resulted in deadly diseases such as mesothelioma in thousands of workers and residents who passed through Wittenoom.
However, it took until September this year for the state government to remove the last residents who stayed for decades despite the risk.
No government has ever committed to cleaning up the area, which is understood to be the largest contaminated site in the southern hemisphere and home to 3 million tonnes of contaminant stretching across 46,000 hectares.
But the battle to address Wittenoom's environmental legacy is ongoing and personal for Banjima elder Maitland Parker, who suffers from mesothelioma.
"They're not only destroying country, but they're destroying our beliefs and our culture and everything else that goes with it," he told 7.30.
"We've had enough of that, our country being taken and destroyed. It's been sitting there for over 60 years, no rehab done to it."
Deadly but 'beautiful' place
Former Wittenoom school teacher Helen Osborne has watched the fatal effects of asbestos take hold since she left the town in 1985.
"Five children who've been at the school I taught have died, all of them probably 50 and under," she said.
"I was with one of the girls that I taught in year 1, and she died here in the hospital about two years ago, and I was with her the day before she died."
Despite the pain linked to Wittenoom, Ms Osborne also remembers it as a thriving and happy town.
"I loved the place," she said.
"We were very free to do what we wanted. Wittenoom was a wonderful place."
What happens next?
Successive governments have focused on closing the town and removing residents from the area, but Mr Parker says the current regime must go further and return the land to its original state.
"For the government to step up, is what we want. They must make a decision. We need the government to step up," he said.
Mr Parker is worried mining could restart in the Wittenoom contaminated area and the renowned Karijini National Park, which is immediately south of the town and a popular destination for tourists.
Sections of both areas have been reserved for future iron ore mining, the industry that underpins most of the state and national economies.
The land was reserved before it gained national park status through the iron ore (Wittenoom) agreement act between the state and Hancock Prospecting, the company owned by Gina Rinehart — Australia's richest person and Lang Hancock's daughter.
In August, the ABC obtained documents which revealed Hancock Prospecting told the government how it would mine an area called Drillers Ridge and manage asbestos risk in 2008.
Drillers Ridge is a contaminated area wedged between Wittenoom and Karijini, and Mr Parker says it is home to several sacred Aboriginal sites.
Future mines would require further approvals and consultation, but Mr Parker's people are firmly against the prospect of mining at Wittenoom or Karijini.
"My people want to see the state government agreement that's been sitting there destroyed, deleted altogether, and a fresh start," he said.
"If the expansions happen within a very close proximity to the park or inside the park, that will destroy us."
Hancock Prospecting declined an interview request.
In a statement, a spokesperson said the company had no immediate plans to mine Drillers Ridge, but did not completely rule it out.
The spokesperson said the company supported a government-led clean-up of Wittenoom and was open to letting go of its tenements within Karijini National Park.
Clean-up would 'cost millions'
The issue has attracted attention from the Labor government's political adversaries in the WA Greens.
Greens MP Brad Pettitt helped the Banjima people question the government on who was responsible for the clean-up; a petition was finalised in June but the response deflected their questions.
"We are seeing a total neglect of serious contamination," Mr Pettitt said.
"Government does need to step up. We are seeing a total neglect of serious contamination that's stopping the Banjima people, who've got native title of this area … [from] accessing their lands."
Curtin University mine rehabilitation expert Adam Cross said while fixing the problems at Wittenoom would be enormously expensive and take years to complete, it was still a worthwhile task.
"The going assumption is that this is going to be a very, very costly endeavour, possibly in the realms of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars," he said.
"There is no question that we have an obligation to return this area to something like the ecosystem that was there."
The ABC approached WA Mines Minister Bill Johnston and Lands Minister John Carey for an interview but neither accepted.
In a statement, a government spokesperson said a Wittenoom advisory group would meet before the end of the year to discuss all land management options.
The Banjima people will be invited to take part, but the spokesperson said a total clean-up of the land in and around Wittenoom was unlikely.
For Mr Parker, it could be too little, too late.
"All our Dreamtime stuff, that'll all disappear," he said.
"We'll still talk about it, we'll sing about it, but it's not there to be shown anymore."
Editor's note (11/10/22): An earlier version of this article did not include the reference to CSR and did not make clear the mineral caused thousands of deaths.
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