Rum Jungle, in Australia's Northern Territory, was of Australia's earliest uranium finds (though Radium Hill in New South wales was probably the first) (305).

The first Rum Jungle find was recorded in 1912, some thirty years after it had become part of one of the far north's most colourful "frontier" mining and agricultural settlements (306). At that time, uranium was just another mineral, and it was not until after the Second World War - with a government incentive of L25,000 for bounty hunters - that uranium was rediscovered along the Finnis river. In 1952, uranium profits were exempted from income tax, and mining was declared a "special defence undertaking": the government took over land on which the strategic mineral had been found (306). It was at this time that the Mary Kathleen deposit and Rum Jungle were discovered. (The latter by a farmer, J. White, while killing kangaroos). Plans were soon being laid for underground mining at the White shaft and seven other deposits were drilled, including the Mount Fitch orebody which was never actually brought into uranium production (306). 1952 also saw British and American experts arriving at Rum Jungle and plans for a town-site being drawn up (305) (306).

A year later, a joint British-American government group, called the Combined Development Agency (CDA), provided ten years' worth of capital on which to open the mine. Consolidated Zinc Proprietary was authorised to construct the project on behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia and, for this purpose, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Conzinc, called Territory Enterprises Ltd, was formed. The same year the Australian Atomic Energy Authority (AAEA, later the AAEC) was set up. The AAEA took control of Rum Jungle, while Territory Enterprises was responsible for its operations (305).

Rum Jungle was mined for just over a decade, supplying yellowcake to the British and American atomic weapons programmes. When that programme was cut back in the USA, output was reduced. In 1963, the mine was closed altogether as a uranium producer, although copper mining continued until 1965 (306). Uranium seems to have been delivered some time after closure - Rum Jungle was the last uranium mine to fold in the 1960's, and it was dismantled in 1971 (306).

Three separate open-cut mines were constructed on the Rum Jungle site: besides White's cut, there was Dyson's cut, completed in 1958, and Rum Jungle South, which was not opened until 1963 (305). Construction for the White mine was carried out by the British firm of George Wimpey and Co. Pty Ltd and, at one point in its operation, was even visited by that well-known wildlife enthusiast, the Duke of Edinburgh ! (306).

However, the royal seal of approval did little to compensate for farmers' land loss (claims were being settled as late as 1962) (306), deplorable working conditions in its early days ("Hell Hole" was one Melbourne newspaper's appellation after a protest strike was called in 1956) (306), and Aboriginal claims in the region. The Finnis River Claim, made by the Northern Land Council (NLC) in 1980, has been called "the most complicated yet heard in Australia" (307).

Worst of all has been the huge amount of environmental damage inflicted on a region noteworthy for its fauna and flora. As early as 1960 an officer of the Northern Territory (NT) administration was reporting that: "...trees along the back of one stream are dying and water holes [are] devoid of fish". Two years later, a Senior Engineer in the territory claimed that severe pollution stretched 16 kilometres from the mil, along the East Finnis river. "Heavy concentrations" of pollution were reported in January 1963, "as large numbers of freshwater shrimp ... and small fish resembling herring have been floating or lying on the banks" (305).

The Australian Senate Select Committee on Water Pollution declared two years later: "One of the major pollution problems in the NT is that caused by copper and uranium mining at Rum Jungle. The strongly acidic effluent from the treatment plant flows via the East Finnis river into the Finnis river, making the water unsuitable for either stock or human consumption for a distance of 20 river miles. Vegetation on the river banks has been destroyed, and it will be many years before this area can sustain growth" (308).

In April 1965, a water resources technical officer told his superiors that the worst period for pollution came just after floods broke down the wall holding back the effluent at the treatment plant. In reality, the early period of mining had not even been graced by a tailings dam and, when dams were built, they often got washed away by floodwaters. Not until 1961 was the situation ameliorated, when tailings were discharged into disused (but presumably quite porous) open-cuts (305).

Six years later, a Northern Territory Administration team reported that: "no significant rehabilitation has been carried out" at Rum Jungle (305). By then, the degree of poisoning caused by the mine was creating great concern among the Administration and the parliamentary opposition. However, the AAEC was unperturbed. One of its officials, Dr Warner, called the pollution "a minor, local ... problem" (305), while the Commission itself refused to take steps to revegetate the wast dumps, and would not make public a (presumably) damning report on water pollution, which the AAEC itself had carried out (305).

There was also complicity between government and company, as evidenced by a submission made in June 1971 by Mr R.F. Feldgenner (a senior NT official), to his Minister. Feldgenner recalled that, in 1962, the Minister for Territories had been well aware of the degree of illegal water pollution caused by the mine, but "...he was reluctant to proceed against the companies for reasons of their association with the Commonwealth in the venture". Any attempt to overcome the hazard would "involve quite unreasonable operating costs," according to another Minister (309).

By 1975, it was known that 2,300 tonnes of manganese, 1,308 tonnes of copper, 200 tonnes of zinc and 450 curies of radium had been released into the Finnis River, with around one quarter of the radium having found its way "probably to the sea" (310).

"About 100 square kilometres of the Finnis River flood plain have been affected by contaminants (heavy metals, uranium, radium and sulphur). In the ten kilometres of the Finnis River downstream from the mine, fish and other aquatic fauna have been almost eliminated with the effect of reducing over the next 15 kilometres downstream". Pandanus palms, water lilies and other aquatic plants had been "eliminated" (311).

CRA and RTZ refused to contribute anything towards the clean-up of Rum Jungle (312). It was left to the Federal government to provide $7.6 million to that end, with another $16.2 million to be spent over the following six years (to around 1990) in removing heavy metals and neutralising the tailings (313) (333).

---

Page last updated September 2, 1999.

---

Back to the Rum Jungle Disaster	or	Back to the SEA-US Front Page
Copyright © SEA-US 1999