22/03/2026
Several thousand stood in the centre of Boorloo this morning, their voices loud and their message clear,
End forest mining.
Western Australian’s from Perth, Margaret River and Albany joined tens of thousands across the country calling for an end to native deforestation as part of the Bob Brown Foundation’s March For Forest.
Despite WA ending native logging in 2024 – the first State to do so at the time – thousands of hectares of Northern Jarrah Forest are still reduced to mulch every year.
An ecosystem found nowhere else on Earth, home to critically endangered cockatoos, quokkas orchids and more, levelled for Bauxite – the raw component of Earth’s most common metal, Aluminium.
In their 60 years of mining in WA, Alcoa has cleared more than 28,000 hectares of forest, none of which has been successfully rehabilitated.
During this clearing, Alcoa has broken the law several times by destroying crucial habitat trees for black cockatoos.
Alcoa’s expansion has also been stated by WA’s own State Regulator, Water Corporation, it proves a “significant risk” to poisoning one of Perth main water supplies.
While Alcoa has recent been slapped with a $55 million fine for some of its illegal clearing, the multi-billion dollar company has also been handed an exemption to continue mining for the next 18-months for the “national interest” by the Federal Government.
The US-company plans to clear a further 11,000ha and keep their mining operations running until 2045.
Speaking at the protest Green’s MLC Jess Beckerling said it was WA’s “great shame” to continue clearing forests when fewer than 10 per cent of the State original vegetation still stands.
She said WA cannot rely on the State or Federal Government to enforce the law to control Alcoa.
She said the next time Alcoa are found to have broken the law, news of another exemption won’t be far behind and people should be angry.
“What we are seeing is an absolute disgrace,” she said.
“Right now, it might seem impossible that we are going to stop Alcoa, but I tell you we are.”
