Why did the government let this continue for two years rather than halt clearing?
For six decades, Alcoa has quietly consumed one of Western Australia's most ecologically significant forests, and now the company finds itself under federal investigation for a second time — this time for clearing protected jarrah habitat while already under scrutiny for doing the same. The case raises a question older than any single corporation: when the law is slow and the forest is fast to fall, what does accountability actually mean? At stake are not only the black cockatoos and quokkas that shelter beneath the jarrah canopy, but the drinking water of an entire city and the integrity of the environmental frameworks meant to protect both.
- Alcoa cleared 318 hectares of protected jarrah forest between 2023 and 2024 — while already under federal investigation for nearly identical violations — prompting authorities to label it a 'deliberate repeat breach.'
- Over sixty years, the company has razed roughly 280 square kilometres of forest without rehabilitating a single hectare, and now seeks government approval to expand further into the water catchment areas that supply Perth's drinking water.
- A record $55 million settlement announced in February masked the existence of a second, ongoing investigation into Alcoa's Willowdale operation — details buried in ministerial briefing notes rather than disclosed publicly.
- Environmental groups are demanding to know why regulators allowed the clearing to continue for two years rather than halting it, and why Alcoa has since been granted an exemption to keep operating despite the findings.
- The company's defence rests on legal 'grandfathering' provisions that predate federal environmental law, a loophole advocates say transforms historical precedent into a licence for ongoing destruction.
- With 59,000 public submissions opposing Alcoa's proposed mine expansion and an investigation still open, the question is whether financial penalties alone can alter the behaviour of a multinational whose pattern of clear, settle, and expand has held for decades.
Alcoa, the American mining giant, is facing a second federal investigation in Western Australia — this one for clearing protected jarrah forest while already under scrutiny for the same conduct. The detail emerged quietly in February, buried in ministerial briefing notes released alongside a record $55 million settlement over clearing at the company's Huntly mine. That settlement, it turned out, was only part of the story.
Between 2023 and 2024, Alcoa cleared 318 hectares of jarrah forest at its Willowdale operation — habitat for black cockatoos, quokkas, and numbats — while federal investigators were already examining its conduct. The government's own internal documents described it as a 'deliberate repeat breach.' To avoid prosecution, the company agreed to spend $40 million on land purchases by the end of 2026, while separately committing $15 million to address an earlier round of clearing that destroyed 1,777 hectares between 2019 and 2023.
Alcoa disputes the framing. Its spokesman argued the company had operated lawfully under 'grandfathering provisions' — legal carve-outs allowing operations that predate the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to continue under older rules. At Huntly, recent legislative amendments removed one such provision; at Willowdale, the equivalent clause remains intact.
The broader picture is harder to argue away. Over sixty years, Alcoa has cleared approximately 280 square kilometres of jarrah forest — roughly four times the size of Perth's Kings Park — and rehabilitated none of it. Its operations now threaten the Serpentine, Perth's largest drinking water dam, even as the company pushes for further mine expansion into the surrounding catchment areas.
For environmental advocates, the case exposes a structural failure. Jess Boyce of the WA Forest Alliance questioned why regulators allowed the clearing to continue for two years rather than stopping it, and why Alcoa has since been granted an exemption to keep clearing. Greens MP Jess Beckerling pointed to the 59,000 public submissions opposing the proposed expansion as evidence of deep community alarm. 'We have a serious problem in this country with multinational corporations destroying places we love,' she said, 'and our laws and governments being completely inadequate to rein them in.'
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water confirmed the Willowdale investigation remains open but declined to elaborate. Whether financial undertakings will prove sufficient to change Alcoa's conduct — or whether the cycle of clearing, settlement, and expansion will simply repeat — remains the central and unresolved question.
The American mining company Alcoa has found itself under federal investigation once again, this time for deliberately clearing protected forest while already facing scrutiny from authorities. The revelation emerged in February when the government announced a record $55 million settlement with the company over clearing at its Huntly mine—but buried in the talking points prepared for federal ministers was news of yet another ongoing inquiry, this one focused on Alcoa's Willowdale operation in Western Australia's southwest.
The pattern is stark. Between 2023 and 2024, while under investigation, Alcoa cleared 318 hectares of jarrah forest—habitat for black cockatoos, quokkas, numbats, and other protected species. The government's own language in internal documents called it a "deliberate repeat breach." To avoid prosecution, the company agreed to spend $40 million on land purchases by the end of 2026. Yet the company itself disputed the characterization, insisting it had operated within the law, relying on grandfathering provisions that allowed it to continue activities that predated federal environmental legislation.
The scale of Alcoa's footprint in the region is difficult to overstate. Over six decades, the company has destroyed roughly 280 square kilometers of jarrah forest—an area equivalent to about four times the size of Perth's Kings Park. In all that time, it has rehabilitated none of it. The mining operations threaten Perth's water supply, particularly around the Serpentine, the city's largest drinking water dam. Now Alcoa is pushing both state and federal governments to approve an expansion of the Huntly mine, much of it in the water catchment areas that feed the city's thirst.
Jess Boyce, director of the WA Forest Alliance, saw the government's language as damning. If federal authorities labeled the clearing a "deliberate repeat breach," she argued, then Alcoa was clearly acting "with blatant disregard for environmental law." The harder question, she posed, was why the government allowed the clearing to continue for two years rather than halting it outright, and why it has now granted Alcoa an exemption to keep clearing despite proving it cannot be trusted.
The February settlement also imposed obligations related to earlier violations. Another undertaking requires Alcoa to spend $15 million to address the clearing of 1,777 hectares of jarrah forest between 2019 and 2023. The breaches created what the government termed an "offset liability of 3,000 hectares"—land that must be protected or restored elsewhere to compensate for the destruction.
Alcoa's defense rested on historical precedent. The company's spokesman noted that mining operations began in the early 1960s under Western Australian legislation, long before the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act took effect. The company maintained it was operating under "grandfathering provisions"—legal carve-outs that allowed existing operations to continue under old rules. At Huntly, this was Section 43B; at Willowdale, Section 43A. The government's recent amendments to the EPBC Act eliminated Section 43B at Huntly, but Section 43A remains unchanged, the company noted.
Environmental advocates saw the situation as symptomatic of a deeper failure. Jess Beckerling, a Greens member in the WA upper house, pointed to the 59,000 submissions the Environmental Protection Authority received about Alcoa's proposed expansion—a "profound level of discontent" with the continued clearing of the Northern Jarrah Forests. "We have a serious problem in this country with multinational corporations destroying places we love," she said, "and our laws and governments being completely inadequate to rein them in."
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water confirmed that its investigation into the Willowdale clearing remains ongoing, but declined to comment further. The Willowdale mine feeds Alcoa's Wagerup refinery, where a gallium plant—backed by the Australian, Japanese, and US governments—is planned. The question now is whether the $40 million undertaking and the ongoing investigation will prove sufficient to change Alcoa's behavior, or whether the pattern of clearing, settlement, and expansion will simply continue.
Notable Quotes
The federal government's labeling of Alcoa's clearing as a 'deliberate repeat breach' indicates the company was 'well aware that it was acting with blatant disregard for environmental law.'— Jess Boyce, director of the WA Forest Alliance
We have a serious problem in this country with multinational corporations destroying places we love and our laws and governments being completely inadequate to rein them in.— Jess Beckerling, Greens WA upper house member
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a company keep clearing forest even while under investigation? That seems almost deliberately provocative.
The government's own documents called it a "deliberate repeat breach," so yes—it appears the company calculated that the cost of clearing and paying fines was worth less than the value of the bauxite underneath. They were operating under old grandfathering rules that predated modern environmental law.
But if the government knew it was happening, why didn't they just stop the clearing?
That's the question environmental groups are asking. The clearing went on for two years while under investigation. The government didn't halt it; they let it continue and then negotiated a settlement. It suggests either the enforcement mechanisms are weak or the political will to use them isn't there.
What's actually at stake here beyond the forest itself?
Perth's drinking water. The Huntly mine is in the water catchment around the Serpentine, the city's largest drinking water dam. The company is also pushing to expand there. So you're talking about a choice between mining and the water supply for a major city.
And the company says it was operating legally?
It claims it was grandfathered in—that its operations predate the federal environmental law, so old rules apply. The government recently changed that for one mine but not the other. It's a legal gray area the company is exploiting.
What does $40 million actually buy in terms of remediation?
Land purchases, supposedly. But here's the thing: in 60 years, Alcoa has rehabilitated zero hectares of the 280 square kilometers it's destroyed. So there's no track record of the company actually restoring anything. The money is meant to offset the damage elsewhere, not fix what's been done.