The Conservation Council of WA (CCWA) has cautioned that West Australians have had enough of Alcoa and will make their voices heard. 

After years of campaigning and all other avenues of protest falling on deaf ears - including mechanisms to hold the industry to account, and government regulations failing – protestors have today decided on taking a direct course of action.

CCWA Executive Director Matt Roberts said these concerned citizens are simply seeking to put Alcoa’s expansion plans and the impact the US mining giant is having on the world’s only jarrah forest under the public spotlight.

Alcoa’s operations in Perth's water catchment and in the world’s only jarrah forest are failing to meet any resemblance of a responsible operator. We have seen:

• 15 years of illegal clearing under federal laws
• Breaches of illegal clearing under state exemption order under investigation
• Mercury levels released into the environment from their Wagerup refinery double between 2022 and 2025
• The Water Corporation shut out of areas to monitor Perth’s drinking water supplies
• Alcoa caught out greenwashing by Ad Standards Australia
• Gallium proposal that threaten the future of WA’s Northern Jarrah Forest
• Workers burned in a caustic spill at Kwinana in 2022 and again, at their Pinjarra facility in 2023 and at Wagerup in 2024.
• A failure to transition workers or rehabilitate the Kwinana refinery with shock closures and sackings.

“The Federal government’s response to Alcoa’s illegal clearing is to give the company a slap on the wrist and a National Interest Exemption to facilitate ongoing operations,” Mr Roberts said.

“Alcoa has been put above the law, no matter how many breaches it continues to add to its growing list, and quite frankly, communities have had enough.

“We have to see better outcomes and stronger regulations at a State Government level with the re-negotiation of the State Agreement Act and the current investigation of illegal clearing under the State Exemption order.

“Alcoa has shown time and time again that it will put mining interests above the future of the Northern Jarrah Forest, Perth's drinking water supplies, and the long-term future and health and safety of its workers.

“Communities are sick of hearing excuses and weasel words – especially when it comes to claims of successful rehabilitation which have been proven to be false and misleading.

“While the Alcoa public relations team adds to its volume of fairy tales, the rest of us are watching our forests collapse, losing access to roads and hiking trails, seeing threatened species like the black cockatoos being pushed closer to extinction, the imminent contamination of our water supply, and heavy metals like mercury in the environment.

“When communities lose faith that governments will act, they will take action to defend the places they love. Our government regulators and the tools available to them have failed to hold Alcoa to account or effectively protect the forest, and the communities and creatures who rely on it.

“The window to correct that failure is rapidly closing, and the voting public will not soon forget the collapse of the world’s only jarrah forest."