SAVE OUR JARRAH

Alcoa are due to start bauxite mining in the Karnet area SE of Jarrahdale in 2013.

In 1968 what is now Langford Park near Jarrahdale saw the beginning of bauxite mining (for aluminium) of the Jarrah Forest. It is an unfortunate fact that the best Jarrah occurs in areas with the best bauxite.

Over 40 years approximately two thirds of the Northern Jarrah Forest extending along the scarp almost to Byford has been mined. Bauxite mining requires total forest destruction and selectively destroys the best jarrah forest.

Alcoa are required to rehabilitate where they have mined. Initially rehabilitation was with pine or Eastern States trees but in recent years rehabilitation has been with local plants and trees (and the top soil of the area is replaced together with contained seed as part of current rehabilitation).

However the established jarrah forest we know took hundreds of years to become what it is and it can never be replicated. Furthermore plants and animals displaced do not all come back and in the face of decreasing rainfall regeneration will be slower and a number of species are likely to be lost forever. There is evidence that the hydrology of the areas mined is disrupted.

SAVE OUR JARRAH!