Environmental justice and uranium mining in Australia: The case of Olympic Dam

• In Event: Extractivism, Energy, and Environmental Justice

Abstract

The mining of uranium at Olympic Dam in South Australia has been contentious since the deposit’s ‘discovery’ in the 1970s. Notably, the mine’s conception occurred at a time of great transnational social and political change, earmarked in Australia by rapidly growing environmentalism and the fight for Aboriginal land rights. But irrespective of the successes of the transformative 1960s and 70s, Australia was a country rich in minerals and economic stagflation in the early 1980s led to renewed engagement by conservatives with the narrative of settler Australia’s right to resource extraction. In this context, and in the eyes of many, uranium mining was increasingly promoted as a potential remedy to Australia’s economic woes. But for the Aboriginal communities from whose land uranium would be extracted uranium mining had the potential to exacerbate the ongoing colonial injustices experienced by communities.

By applying the environmental justice concept of ‘nuclear colonialism’ to an historical analysis of Olympic Dam Uranium Mine, this paper explores the extent to which development and resource extraction impeded upon Aboriginal interests in the 1980s. It will explore some of the colonial tactics used by the mining companies in charge of Olympic Dam in collaboration with state government ministers and officials to undermine Aboriginal attempts to protect their lands during a period of growing land rights protection and positive developments in the recognition of Aboriginal heritage. And while this paper focuses predominantly on the 1970s and early 80s, its central points of discussion remain pertinent. Olympic Dam is still operational, managed by a company that has been continually accused of transgressing the rights of Indigenous peoples the world over. Amidst contemporary discussions about nuclear energy’s contribution to the mitigation of climate change, considering the historic environmental injustices of uranium mining is both timely and necessary.

Author

• Jessica Urwin, Australian National University