South32 Talking Points

17 February 2025

Call Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek now on (02) 6277 7920

The Northern Jarrah Forests, (south of Perth/Boorloo) are some of the most beautiful, diverse and vulnerable forests on Earth but they are facing a major threat.

More than a century of logging and clearing have had major impacts on the Northern Jarrah Forests, their wildlife and waterways, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recently found that they are one of a handful of Australian ecosystems at particular risk of collapse due to the drying and warming climate.

The native forest logging ban came into force in 2024 (which is massive progress for this area and the rest of the South West’s forests) but another now the Minister has approved another major threat to these forests – Forest Mining Expansion.

These huge expansions, from both South32 and Alcoa, will result in the clearing of tens of thousands of hectares of the Northern Jarrah Forests over the next fifteen years.

WAs unique plants and animals are facing multiple threats from a drying climate, industrialisation, urban sprawl and now mining in our forests. We cannot afford to lose any more forest and woodland habitat especially not in one of our last remaining biodiversity hotspots.

Contact the federal Environment Minister to voice your disappointment.

Talking points

Before you call, read through the talking points below. You’ve got this!

If you call outside of office hours, you’ll go straight to voice message – leaving a message is great too.
Your call will reach one of Minister ministerial office staff members. They are used to getting these calls from constituents and usually just take a message. Ask them to please pass on your message to Minister Plibersek.
Please be polite and respectful and remember to thank staff for their time.

Remember, the most persuasive calls are personalised and make an emotional connection.

State your name and where you live.

I am hugely disappointed that the Environement Minister has approved South32’s Worsley bauxite mine exansion.

The Northern Jarrah Forests is a biodiversity hotspot, critical habitat, valuable recreation area and vital carbon store. It needs protection.

There is little over 50% left of the bio-region. What precious forests remain must be protected, not cleared and strip-mined.

Thousands of hectares of critical habitat in the Northern Jarrah Forests are proposed to be cleared and operations will result in direct and indirect impacts to Matters of National Environmental Significance (including the critically endangered Woylie and Western Ringtail Possum and the threatened Quindanning Spider Orchid.)

If approved, up to 4,500 hectares of native vegetation including 24 Black Cockatoo nesting trees will be cleared. We need to save this threatened species.

The approval means two new crossings will be built over the culturally significant Hotham River. Further, local hydrology will be impacted due to the abstraction of up to 900 ML/A of groundwater compacted by a drying climate. This has the potential to affect waterways including the culturally significant Hotham River.

We know that Jarrah forests cannot be rehabilitated. The WA EPA even states that the “success and effectiveness of the proponent’s rehabilitation program is yet to be determined” and “that with a drying climate, rehabilitation of forest to its former structure may not be possible”.

The project will also have a significant impact on climate (with nearly 51 million tonnes of scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions to be released over 15 years).

In the current drying climate and extinction crisis, we cannot afford to lose any more forest and woodland habitat.

I am very disappointed that Minister Plibersek did not listen to the community and reject South32’s Worsley Mine Expansion.

Protect the tingles from prescribed burning, for good

Tingles are a large, ancient tree species that are only found in a small area in WA’s Southwest, close to Walpole. They can live for more than 400 years, reach heights over 55 metres and have the largest base of any eucalypt, and provide critical habitat to many threatened plants and animals. They are vulnerable to frequent fire.

In December 2024, Giants East, a tingle forest block in the famed Valley of the Giants, was torched as part of the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA)’s prescribed burning program.

More than 100 giant trees collapsed in the intense burn, with flames reaching the tops of many trees in one of the worst outcomes seen by WA’s prescribed burning program.

After persistent community action, three tingle-karri blocks, Nornalup, Coalmine and Mount Clare received a reprieve at the end of 2025 and were removed from the burn plan until July 2026.

But these blocks, and other tingle forests, aren’t safe forever. They could be on the burn plan for 2026-27. There must be a commitment from the WA Government to permanently protect tingles from prescribed burning and revise how fire is managed in these areas.

Over time, tingle forests self-thin and become naturally less flammable. Left unburnt, they are less of a fire risk than forests burnt in the last 30 years.

In a drying climate that is increasingly prone to bushfires, it’s important to be bushfire ready, but prescribed burning shouldn’t be the only tool in our bushfire prevention kit. It is vital that the Southwest’s prescribed burning practices reflect current science and a changed climate, and funding is directed towards rapid detection and suppression of bushfires.

Smoking collapsed Tingle after the giants east burn

It is of the highest priority that the tingles are protected from fire not just in this burn plan, but for good.

Please contact the Premier and relevant Ministers using our template to urge them to permanently protect tingle forests from prescribed burning. Enter your details to start writing your email.

Read more about the Giants East burn or about rapid suppression technology.