Alcoa Pinjarra Alumina Refinery and Bauxite Mining on the Darling Range

The Pinjarra Alumina Refinery Proposal is a significant amendment to an existing proposal that operates under State Agreements and Ministerial Statement 646. This proposal includes:

• Increased production at the Pinjarra Refinery from 5.0 to 5.25 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa), and an increase in residue disposal (tailings) from 10 to 10.8 Mtpa
• Clearing 1,695 hectares (ha) within a refinery development envelope of 3,241 ha
• Transition of mining from Huntly to Myara North and Holyoake, and clearing 8,323 ha within a 34,103 ha mining development envelope
• The documents are available on the EPA website. There are 90 documents
• Pinjarra Alumina Refinery Proposal

The Bauxite Mining 2023-2027 Proposal was referred to the EPA by the Western Australian Forest Alliance, along with Bauxite Mining 2022-2026. The EPA has determined to assess these proposals at the level of PER, and to combine them into a single proposal. This proposal includes:

• Clearing 13,788 ha within a 39,047 ha mining development envelope at Huntly
• Clearing 846 ha within a 2,137 ha mining development envelope at Willowdale
• Up to 105,000 drill holes per year within a 178,340 ha exploration development envelope
• The documents are available on the EPA website. There are 92 documents
• Bauxite Mining 2023-2027 Proposal

The EPA has decided to publish both ERDs for public review at the same time. There is a fact sheet that explains the EPA public review process:

EPA Fact Sheet – Alcoa assessments

These proposals come shortly after the Minister for Environment decided to approve a proposal by South32 to expand its Worsley Alumina mine expansion, which gave South32 approval to clear 3,855 ha of the Northern Jarrah Forest.

Ministerial Statement authorising South32 Worsley Expansion

It’s also not that long since the WA government ended commercial logging of native forests, saying at the time that south west native forests would be protected from 1 January 2024.

https://www.wa.gov.au/government/media-statements/Cook-Labor-Government/Commercial-native-logging-ends-in-Western-Australia-20240101

Alcoa’s operations in WA are authorised and enabled by State Agreement Acts dating back to 1961.

WA Government information on State Agreements  

Their operations are partly regulated under the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (EP Act), and partly exempt. Since the WA government added in protection for native vegetation to the Environmental Protection Act in 2004, Alcoa has been exempt from that section.

Environmental Protection (Alcoa – Huntly and Willowdale Mine Sites) Exemption Order 2004

This means that much of Alcoa’s previous mining operations have been authorized through the State Agreement Act without contemporary environmental impact assessment and without transparent processes and opportunities for public participation. Since the EPA’s decision to assess the Mining and Management Plans for 2022-2027 and 2023-2028, Alcoa’s operations have been subject to another special exemption under section 6 of the EP Act.

Environmental Protection (Darling Range Bauxite Mining Proposals) Exemption Order 2023

For the first time, the Mining and Management Plans have been published along with monitoring that is required as part of the Exemption Order.

Alcoa Mining and Management Plans

These Mining and Management Plans have never been subject to public environmental review – don’t miss the opportunity to have a say about what happens to our jarrah forest.

https://consultation.epa.wa.gov.au/open-for-submissions/pinjarra-alumina-revised-bauxite-mining-per/

Photo:  Josh Cowling

Our jarrah forest and the waterways within it are important for a multitude of reasons. The waterways of the Peel-Harvey catchment are environmentally, culturally as well as socially significant.

Biodiversity

The forest lies within the southwest biodiversity hotspot which forms one of 36 global biodiversity hotspots, where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat. Flora and fauna of the region are internationally renowned as among the most diverse and unique in the world.

The cover of native forest is a rarity in the south-west of WA, where more than 70% of the vegetation has been cleared since Europeans arrived. More than 40% of the Northern Jarrah Forest has already been cleared[1].

The Northern Jarrah Forest is also characterised by high species richness and ecosystem diversity, as well as a high number of endemic species (occurring over a range of less than 100 km). More than 780 species of plants are known, along with 235 species of terrestrial vertebrates. There are many rare and threatened species including orchids, frogs, birds (including three black cockatoo species and Muir’s corella) and mammals (including Southern brown bandicoot, Chuditch, Dibbler, two species of Phascogale, mainland Quokka, Numbat, Woylie, Tammar wallaby and Western ringtail possum). There are also 8 Threatened Ecological Communities, and 9 migratory species.

This biodiversity provides ecosystem services including the biogeochemical cycles that control the flow of energy, nutrients and water in the environment.

Resilience

Forests provide a buffer that keeps the environment functioning. Their structure keeps the landscape stable, preventing erosion and transport of sediments into streams and rivers. Trees and plants in the forest remove carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it into wood. Forests are essential to the water cycle, taking water up from the ground and transpiring it into the atmosphere where it then returns as rainfall. Forests support the microclimate conditions that maintain water cycles in the local environment, and these feed into the larger ecosystem scale conditions. Forests keep us cooler too, by 2 to 3 degrees.

Water

Rainfall in the southwest of WA has declined since the 1970s, by around 20%. This has resulted in a decrease in the amount of water running into surface water streams and dams by about 80%, and we don’t yet know what effect this is having on our groundwater. While climate change is causing reduced rainfall, we have known since 2013 that deforestation is contributing just as much to reduced rainfall.

Reduced rainfall impacts on humans directly, because it is a source of drinking water. Most of the water storage that supplies the southwest of WA and the Goldfields is in the Northern Jarrah Forest, and we rely on the intact forest ecosystem to filter the water that falls in the catchment and flows into the dams. The forest also prevents erosion and sedimentation into the dams so the water is clean and clear, needing very little treatment to make it safe to drink.

Carbon storage

When alive, trees absorb and store carbon. Once dead, they don’t grow and therefore don’t absorb carbon. When rotting or burning, they emit carbon. Our forests are removing some of the excess carbon in our atmosphere that is causing climate change, and sequestering (storing) it safely.

Aboriginal cultural heritage

The jarrah forest is highly valued to Noongar people. The very name, jarrah, comes from Noongar language as do many of the place names across the forest. There are more than 600 registered Aboriginal sites within the Northern Jarrah Forest, including several rivers. For more information about the importance of the jarrah forest to Noongar people, see the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council website.

Recreation

The area is increasingly popular for nature based tourism, with major walk and mountain bike trails such as the Bibbulmun Track and Munda Biddi Trail and areas like Jarrahdale and Dwellingup being popular tourist destinations for swimming, mountain biking, climbing, camping and bushwalking. Dwellingup is part of the WA Trail Town network, with a dedicated Trails and Visitor Centre. These trails are threatened by bauxite mining, with both already relocated several times taking them away from their original route.

As well as active recreation, the Northern Jarrah Forest is valued for its nature-based tourism, with activities including nature appreciation, birdwatching, wildflower spotting, picnicking, photography and art.

Provisions

The jarrah forest has long been highly valued by the Noongar people, then European settlers. It supports water and wood production, ecosystem services like pollination and nutrient cycling, genetic flow, recreation, community well-being, acts as major carbon storage for climate mitigation, and contains significant ecological linkages.

It has a short history of timber harvesting and intensive mining for minerals such as bauxite, gold and tin, and a much longer history of truly sustainable use.

Intergenerational equity

Intergenerational equity is the idea of fairness between generations, so that humans in the future have the same well-being as those of the present or past. It includes an understanding that natural resources must be used sustainably so that there is something left for future generations. The Northern Jarrah Forest has inherent value to the present generation (existence value), and to future generations (bequest value). According to the principle of intergenerational equity the current generation has a responsibility to ensure that future generations can live in an environment that has intact values, and do not have a legacy of environmental damage to repair. More information about how people use and value the forests in the south west of WA, read the report commissioned by the WA Government prior to the decision to stop old-growth logging: WABSI report: the value and use of Western Australia’s native forests now and into the future

Human health and wellbeing

The links between environment and human health and wellbeing are well known. Apart from the impacts to human health through direct influences like air or water pollution, being in or near the natural environment is statistically associated with better population outcomes. People who live near green or blue spaces are healthier when measured by many indicators including the rate of common mental disorders (stress, depression, anxiety), blood pressure, use of prescribed medications, and even the rate of coronary disease and stroke are lower[2].

[1] https://www.epa.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/EPA_Report/EPA%20Report%201768%20Worsley%20Mine%20Expansion_0.pdf

[2] Chiabai et al (2018). The nexus between climate change, ecosystem services and human health: towards a conceptual framework https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718310830#s0035 .

Large areas of the Northern Jarrah Forest have been, and continue to be at risk from vegetation clearing, invasive species, disease, climate change including reduced rainfall, increased fire intensity and frequency and other threatening processes, which in turn affect environmental, economic and social well-being and health. In this context, many landholders, community groups, industry and government partners are working to protect and restore native vegetation within areas under their control. In the Peel-Harvey catchment, this work is undermined by the extent of clearing and decline in vegetation condition.

Mining

Across all landscapes, native vegetation is changing due to the impacts of reduced rainfall, hotter than average and extreme temperatures, and increased burning. Bauxite mining in particular is well documented/known to have significant environmental impacts. In the Northern Jarrah Forest, past, present and proposed large scale bauxite mining is one of the highest impact threats, through direct and cumulative impacts. Clearing for mining changes the structure, health and composition of forest ecosystems, can change water cycling and flow regimes, result in loss of carbon stores and change fire regimes.

Clearing

Globally, Australia has amongst the highest rates of land clearing, with 29 mammals driven to extinction since European colonisation and more than 1,700 others being listed as threatened or endangered. Western Australia has had the third highest area of land cleared (between 2010 and 2018) with a total of 288,400 hectares cleared, of which 68,700 hectares were primary forests at least 30 years old. Recent data has shown clearing of native vegetation is occurring at a faster rate than is being replanted or regenerating naturally, including high quality habitat that is rich in biodiversity and important structural elements. While restoration and revegetation are important, recent reviews of natural resource management programs have highlighted the expense and difficulty of restoring habitat to a complexity and structure that resembles intact native vegetation. Mature forest is very difficult or impossible to restore to its original state and restoration is significantly more expensive than protection. Conservation of forest areas with compatible uses such as nature based recreation should be prioritised over clearing and attempts at rehabilitation.

Climate change

Rainfall in South West WA has declined by about 20% since the 1970s, and that decline is projected to continue. In 2010/11, drought and heatwave caused death of trees in over 16,000 hectares of the Northern Jarrah Forest, with mortality rates 10.5 times more than normal[1]. This included trees at least 100 years old that had successfully withstood fire, drought and heatwaves for a century or more.

The most impacts of tree mortality were associated with rocky outcrops, areas of shallow soils and/or dense regrowth including some areas of dense mine site rehabilitation. This tells us that rehabilitated jarrah forest is probably less resilient to climate change.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the Northern Jarrah Forest could face collapse, and in 2024, a months-long drought caused yet more large areas of vegetation to dry and die.

Biosecurity

The Northern Jarrah Forest faces a range of biosecurity threats from disease and invasive species. The forest has been impacted by Phytophthora cinnamomi, or dieback, since it was introduced in the early 20th century. Around 18% of the Northern Jarrah Forest has been mapped as infected with dieback. Other fungal diseases including marri canker and myrtle rust also threaten the jarrah forest.

Invasive weed species are present in parts of the Northern Jarrah Forest, but in relatively low levels. Weed species include watsonia, east coast tea tree, various clovers and legumes, and exotic pasture grasses. Pines and east coast gums have been planted in parts of the Northern Jarrah Forest mostly for forestry, and some have established outside of plantation areas. Cotton bush (Gomphocarpus fruticosus), present in the Myara area is a declared pest organism.

The introduction of polyphagous shot-hole borer to the Perth metropolitan area is another threat to the Northern Jarrah Forest. At present it appears that the borer will not impact healthy native vegetation, being mostly found in ornamental tree species in urban areas such as box elder maple, black locust, London plane trees and Poinciana. The rapid spread of the borer from a single observation in two trees demonstrates the speed with which biosecurity risks can materialise, and the risk is higher when the ecosystem is in poorer condition from other threats.

Fire

The threat to the Northern Jarrah Forest from fire, both prescribed and accidental, is well documented. As with all other threats, the impacts of fire will be magnified by climate change. For more information on the impacts of fire on the Northern Jarrah Forest, see To Burn, or Not to Burn[1].

[1] Bradshaw (2025). To Burn or Not to Burn https://assets.nationbuilder.com/ccwa/pages/28105/attachments/original/1748407996/CC250521_To_Burn_or_Not_Book2.pdf?1748407996

General environmental information

According to the most recent State of the Environment Report 2022, the state and trend of the environment of Australia are poor and deteriorating as a result of increasing pressures from climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and resource extraction.  Multiple pressures are creating cumulative impacts that amplify threats to our environment, and abrupt changes in ecological systems have been recorded in the past 5 years. For more information see the 2022 State of the Environment report here

Water & Economic Impacts – Jeff Bremer Presentation from Town Hall Meeting, Mandurah on 5 August 2025

Environmental impact assessment

The Environmental Defenders Office has published guidance on the environmental impact assessment process in WA

https://www.edo.org.au/publication/environmental-impact-assessment-process-under-the-environmental-protection-act-1986-wa/

The EPA has also published a guideline that explains its aims and objectives, and the principles and factors that it considers in environmental impact assessment: https://www.epa.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/Policies_and_Guidance/Statement%20of%20environmental%20principles%2C%20factors%2C%20objectives%20and%20aims%20of%20EIA%20-%204%20April%202023.pdf

Northern Jarrah Forest

• ‘A Thousand Cuts – Mining in the Northern Jarrah Forest’
• WAFA Bauxite mining threatens drinking water https://wafa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/EFM-A4-Fact-Sheet_Water-Contamination_260525.pdf
• WAFA Mine rehabilitation not possible in Jarrah forest https://wafa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/EFM-A4-Fact-Sheet_Rehab_260325.pdf
• WABSI knowledge gaps https://wabsi.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Lit-review-NJF_WABSI.pdf
• Introductory Information Sheet: Alcoa Proposed Mining Expansion,  Dwellingup Discovery Forest Defenders
• Information Sheet: Rehabilitation in the Jarrah Forest after Mining, Dwellingup Discovery Forest Defenders
• Information Sheet: Air Quality (Dust and Pollution), Dwellingup Discovery Forest Defenders
• Information Sheet: Fauna, Dwellingup Discovery Forest Defenders
• Information Sheet: Flora, Dwellingup Discovery Forest Defenders
• Information Sheet: Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Dwellingup Discovery Forest Defenders
• Information Sheet: Rehabilitation, Dwellingup Discovery Forest Defenders
• Information Sheet: Soil, Dwellingup Discovery Forest Defenders
• Information Sheet: Water, Dwellingup Discovery Forest Defenders

Alcoa

• Boiling Cold https://www.boilingcold.com.au/tag/alcoa/
• Public Source https://apps.publicsource.org/alcoa-mines-threaten-australia-forest-part-1/

More than 40,000 ha Forest clearing

Have your say before Thursday 21 August 2025

The EPA has released Alcoa’s Public Environmental Review (PER) documents seeking approval to clear over 40,000 hectares of forest to expand its bauxite mining operations on the Darling Range and their alumina refinery at Pinjarra.

The proposed expansion will have serious direct and cumulative social, economic and ecological impacts.

This Position Statement outlines PHCC’s position on what is at risk and why it is important for community to participate in the environmental review of these proposals.

You have until Thursday 21 August 2025 to have your say.

Alcoa’s Pinjarra Alumina Refinery Expansion proposal includes clearing of 1,396 ha within a 3,241 ha refinery development envelope, and an increase in clearing of 7,500 ha within a 23,900 ha mine development envelope. Including clearing that has been authorised through other state processes, that’s nearly 9,000 ha of clearing across more than 50,000 ha.

Alcoa’s Mining and Management Plans 2022-2026 and 2023-2027 proposals include clearing of 14,634 ha within a 41,184 ha mine development envelope. Including clearing that has been authorised through other state processes, that’s over 30,000 ha of clearing across 93,000 ha. There’s also another 178,340 ha subject to ‘low impact exploration activities’ .

The three proposals have been consolidated into two proposals, and the public environmental review period has been opened concurrently by the EPA.

That’s a total of 40,560 ha of clearing, across a footprint of almost 150,000 ha, plus exploration.

Read our full position statement here

With the above approaches in mind the PHCC is preparing an evidence and value based submission. Throughout the process we will be encouraging people to have their say, providing updates and release the draft submission before the 8 week review period closes.

Keep checking this page for updates.

For more information contact: admin@peel-harvey.org.au Ph: 6369 8800