Forum Views ()
Forum Replies ()
Read more with google mobile :
Australian mining boom leaves Aboriginal town behind
Yahoo!
My Yahoo!
Mail
More Yahoo! Services
Account Options
New User? Sign Up
Sign In
Help
Yahoo! Search
web search
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Asia Pacific
World
Australian mining boom leaves Aboriginal town behind
AFP - Thursday, April 8
Send
IM Story
Print
Members of the Aboriginal community sit in the yard of a property in the Aboriginal housing area of Roebourne in the north of Western Australia in 2008. Originally settled in the late 18th century gold rush, Roebourne was reduced to a virtual ghost town in the 1960s, when mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton developed the towns of Karratha and Dampier to accommodate their workers.
ROEBOURNE, Australia (AFP) - – The windows of Roebourne's once-thriving main street have been boarded up and its pavement is littered with the shards of shattered beer bottles.
Aboriginal elder Peter Jeffries gestures a weathered hand toward the abandoned banks and offices in the Western Australian town, their peeling facades bleached by the desert sun.
"This used to be the main town, it had all the agencies. All the companies did business here," he says. "It's a shell of what it used to be. Roebourne's been left behind."
Originally settled in the late 18th century gold rush, Roebourne was reduced to a virtual ghost town in the 1960s, when mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton developed the towns of Karratha and Dampier to accommodate their workers.
Farmers forced the local Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi tribes off the land and Aboriginal people were banned from entering Roebourne at all until the late 1960s, when it was reclaimed as a native township following the miners' exodus.
Today it sits just 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Australia's lucrative iron ore mines, but wealth and progress have passed the people of Roebourne by.
"In the last 20 years we've seen zero benefits," says local mine worker Vince Adams.
"The houses have slowly degenerated to nothing, they live in faeces. You go to any one of the houses in this community and you will find 15, 20 adults living in a three bedroom house. Alcohol, sexual, drug, child abuse, we've got the whole lot."
"We are either alcoholics or drug addicts, and a minority of us work," he adds, with a bitter laugh.
Adams' two-year-old nephew died last year after touching live wires which had been exposed by a hole in the wall of his family's rundown house during a game of hide and seek.
The toddler's family can only afford the rent by sharing the house with almost a dozen other families.
Plumbing and other infrastructure is stretched to the limit and disease is rife. Children quite literally sleep where they can find space, and live in highly dysfunctional environments, Adams says.
The town's 50-year-old school is in a state of disrepair and there is no doctor or X-ray machine at the local hospital.
Men live, on average, to just 52 years of age in Roebourne and women 63, compared with the national average life expectancy of 79 years for men and 84 for women.
"Indigenous people are still living in third-world conditions, they are still dying faster, their education rate is still lower than the rest of Australia. We die more often from curable disease," Jeffries said.
Optimism prevailed in the 1980s when mining companies promised local tribes a share of profits in return for using land, but a 2005 study of Aboriginal living conditions in the Pilbara found many deals had brought little benefit.
The indigenous employment rate is roughly half that of the wider Pilbara community and their participation in the booming mining sector has remained relatively marginal, while the cost of living has skyrocketed.
They account for just five percent of income earned in the region -- three percent of mainstream earnings -- despite making up more than 15 percent of the population.
As much as 36 percent of the Aboriginal population is dependent on welfare.
"As an Aboriginal person you're better off on welfare in public housing, that's the reality, because the economy has gone crazy," said Simon Hawkins, chief of the Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC).
The very act of mining is anathema to Aborigines' deep connection to and belief in origin from the land, but they are powerless to stop it, explains Hawkins, who mediates between local tribes and mining companies.
"There's no land rights legislation in Western Australia, mining will occur," he said. "It's a matter for the traditional owners of trying to negotiate the best terms that they can."
The highly confidential terms of land use agreements vary widely from compensation in the form of a lump sum or royalties, to training programmes or job guarantees.
But mining companies enjoyed 40 years of unadulterated profits before laws were passed requiring them to recognise Aboriginal claims over the land, during which time YMAC estimates 340 billion dollars of iron ore was exported to Asia.
Of the 16 billion dollars in mining profits made in 2008 Hawkins said less than 0.25 percent went back to Aborigines, while more than 35 percent of future production would come from mines not covered by land use agreements.
Jeffries, who represents the local Aboriginal people in contract negotiations, blames pervasive ignorance for their continuing plight.
"The wider community will never understand the connection that indigenous people have to our country. (The miners) only give us what they have to legally and it means absolutely nothing," he said.
"They take, take, take and they don't give back, and they use the excuse that they're just here to take the stuff out of the ground, but it goes bigger than that."
Unease about potential loss of culture was identified in the 2005 study by the Australian National University as one of the difficulties for Aborigines in engaging with the mining industry, and Adams says companies have been slow to appreciate their needs.
Some firms now include "cultural leave" in their contracts with Aboriginal workers to accommodate ceremonies marking births, initiations and funerals, but most are forced to forget their traditions, he says.
"It affects the people who are trying to carry on our law and culture, our whole community," he said, noting the particular impact of lengthy stints in mines on their complex kinship-based family system.
Recommend
Send
IM Story
Print
Related Articles
US-ENTERTAINMENT Summary Reuters - 50 minutes ago
Not just TV, "Army Wives" eases stress on spouses Reuters - 50 minutes ago
Rare Kahlo painting of idol to reappear at auction Reuters - 2 hours 15 minutes ago
New rules scramble Scrabble tradition AFP - 2 hours 55 minutes ago
Indian soap operas draw new captive audience, men Reuters - Thursday, April 8
News Search
Top Stories
US researchers identify smokers with highest cancer risk
Astronomers solve enigma of eclipsing star
GM posts $4.3 billion loss for post-bankruptcy 2009
Ex-Fed chief Greenspan defends role in crisis
OECD forecasts slower growth for rich nations
More Top Stories »
ADVERTISEMENT
Most Popular
Most Viewed
Most Recommended
Jim Carrey, Jenny McCarthy split -- via Twitter
Spread dread for Greece as debt confusion roils investors
Angelie Jolie, Brad Pitt visit Bosnia refugees: UN
Car giants eye profits in new tie-up
Renault set for new tie-up with Daimler
More Most Viewed »
'Rare' fossil of new dinosaur species found in US
Hollywood stars help prevent suicide after Twitter alert
Junkies and junk-food addicts share craving mechanism
Toad is a telltale for impending quakes: scientists
More Most Recommended »
Elsewhere on Yahoo!
Financial news on Yahoo! Finance
Stars and latest movies
Best travel destinations
More on Yahoo! News
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Subscribe to our news feeds
Top StoriesMy Yahoo!RSS
» More news feeds | What are news feeds?
Also on Yahoo
Answers
Groups
Mail
Messenger
Mobile
Travel
Finance
Movies
Sports
Games
» All Yahoo! Services
Site Highlights
Singapore
Full Coverage
Most Popular
Asia Entertainment
Photos
World Cup 2010
Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte. Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Service |
Privacy Policy |
Community |
Intellectual Property Rights Policy |
Help
Other News on Thursday, 8 April 2010 Iran's president attacks Obama on nuclear "threat"
Israel is 'main threat to Middle East peace': Turkish PM
US-TECH Summary
Afghanistan plays down Karzai's anti-West remarks
|
Google, AOL patent win affirmed by appeals court
Berlin airport reopens after WW2 bomb defused
|
Photographers sue Google over book-scanning project
GM posts $4.3 billion loss for post-bankruptcy 2009
Rio rescuers dig for victims of landslides
|
Colombia blasts arrest of spies by Venezuela
|
After violence, critics say Peru's Garcia unfit to lead
|
Ex-Fed chief Greenspan defends role in crisis
Swiss solar-energy plane in maiden test flight
OECD forecasts slower growth for rich nations
Israel PM doubts sanctions have 'teeth' to dissuade Iran
Google sued by visual artists over book scanning
W.House 'okays killing of US-born terror cleric'
Auto giants launch new tie-up
Japan's video game visionary: the console is dying
AP Exclusive: Kyrgyz uprising seizes security HQ
Police investigating explosion in Islamabad
Anti-govt protests sweep Kyrgyzstan, 100 said dead
Google, AOL patent win affirmed by appeals court
|
Slovenia minister meets Dalai Lama despite China warning
US author says China media can't cover Google book
Kyrgyzstan opposition forms own new government
AOL says to sell or shut down Bebo in 2010
|
Protests force state of emergency in Bangkok
Slash Wears I’m With Coco Pin On “Tonight Show With Jay Leno”
Coral Springs Teen Jailed On 25 Counts Of Kiddie Porn
Govt: 40 dead, 400 wounded in Kyrgyzstan unrest
U.S. Consumer Credit Declines In February
China agrees to meet world powers on Iran sanctions: France
Virginia Governor Declares April Confederate History Month
Karzai seen moving to ease tensions with US
New York Police Raid Six Brooklyn Businesses In Marijuana Bust
Forecasters Predict Up To 8 Hurricanes For Atlantic In 2010
World Bank Provides $100 Billion For Recovery From Global Meltdown
Family Dollar Stores Q2 Profit Tops Views
Obama Administration Approves Killing Of Muslim American Cleric
Usher Earns Third #1 Album On Billboard Chart With "Raymond V. Raymond"
India's Kingfisher Airlines to raise 100 mln dlrs
India corporate fraud rising: KPMG report
Rare Kahlo painting of idol to reappear at auction
|
JAL plans to speed up redundancies: report
Usher, Justin Bieber lead pop album chart
|
US-ENTERTAINMENT Summary
Renault, Nissan and Daimler launch tie-up
Indonesia moves to end migrant stand-off
Tom Clancy heroes team up to fight terror
Tom Clancy heroes team up to fight terror
|
Slower growth forecast for advanced nations
US returns pre-Columbian treasures, colonial art to Peru
Not just TV, Army Wives eases stress on spouses
|
Stop using English, China tells TV stations
Lady Gaga, Scouting for Girls top UK charts midweek
|
Roma children in eastern Europe still facing barriers to education
Australian mining boom leaves Aboriginal town behind
Indian soap operas draw new captive audience, men
|
Antique beadwork revived in S.Africa ahead of W.Cup
Destitute and desperate, Icelanders opt for exile
Lloyd Webber delays Broadway opening due to health
GOP Nightclub Scandal Prompts Porn Star To Become Republican
Passengers May Soon Pay To Use Potty On Airlines
Judge Rules Iran Must Pay $1.3 Billion To Beirut Bombing Victims
Scientists Discover New Species Of Man Sized Giant Lizards Endowed With Two Penises
California Teen Eyes To Become Youngest Everest Climber
News
Taliban releases video of captured US soldier: report
British PM steps up election fight with tax pledge
U.S. military weighs renewing probe over Iraq video
Columbia to offer journalism-computer science degree
EU hopes to announce visa-free travel for Bosnians in June
Iran's president attacks Obama on nuclear "threat"
Kyrgyz opposition seizes power, dissolves parliament
|
Palm shares soar on takeover rumors
Israel is 'main threat to Middle East peace': Turkish PM
Thai PM cancels overseas trip amid mass protests
|
US may seek to block Google-AdMob purchase: WSJ
Sri Lanka holds first post-war parliament poll
|
Signs of recovery for online ad market in US
U.S. Iraq command: no current plans to reopen attack probe
|
Cuba opens online store with cultural twist
Afghan Taliban issue video of US soldier Bergdahl
|
Growing number of Australians could shape 2010 election
|
Google sued by visual artists over book scanning
Greek crisis to overshadow ECB policy meeting
Militants bomb three girls' schools in Pakistan
Nuclear summit takes aim at unsecured bomb material
|
Qatari diplomat held in US flight bomb scare; officials
Chinese man gets death sentence in child murders
Qatari man sparks scare on U.S. flight
United and US Airways in merger talks: report
NZ Catholic church investigates 5 abuse complaints
Rio hit by fresh landslide; death toll at 138
|
China mine death toll at 12 after 'miracle' rescue
Obama, Medvedev to sign nuclear arms treaty
Chance of major hurricane hit in US, Caribbean high: forecast
US military reviews video of Iraq shooting: official
China 'deeply concerned' over Kyrgyzstan unrest
GM posts $4.3 billion loss for post-bankruptcy 2009
Operators under fire after US mine disaster
US researchers identify smokers with highest cancer risk
Oil to be moved off ship stuck on Australia reef
United flight lands safely, passenger in custody
Astronomers solve enigma of eclipsing star
Kyrgyz opposition dissolves parliament
US soldier urges release in Taliban video: SITE
Japan coach Okada under fire after Serbia defeat
Chinese man gets death for murdering 8 children
Qatari Diplomat Arrested For Alleged "Shoe Bombing" On UAL Flight 663
Sri Lankans vote in parliamentary elections
Jessica Simpson Appears "Au Naturel" On Marie Claire
Universal Cancels Josh Brolin-Starrer “Cartel”
C-Money of Slightly Stoopid Talks Debut Solo Album "Family Business"
Nokia to launch music download service in China
|
US, Japan agree to resume talks on beef import
Whitney Houston says drug use reports ridiculous
|
Seoul shares inch higher on techs; banks down
US Treasury Secretary Geithner heads to China
Former Dynasty actor Christopher Cazenove dies at 64
|
China Life says 2009 profit up 72 percent
Stones roadie publishes book, iPhone App together
|
HBO picks up Teenage Paparazzo
|
Geithner to visit Beijing amid currency dispute
PAKISTAN
FACTBOX-S.Korean policymakers' comments on economy, policy
Seoul shares inch higher on techs; banks down
S.Korea sees softer March retail sales vs Feb
Japan machinery orders surprisingly fell in Feb.
Round-the-world cyclist eyes Everest summit
Tattoos of love and war for US Marines
Gay-themed film challenges boundaries in Malaysia
Lau hopes sci-fi film breaks new ground
Former "Dynasty" actor Christopher Cazenove dies at 64
Stones roadie publishes book, iPhone App together
US author says China media can't cover Google book
Whitney Houston says drug use reports "ridiculous"
German minister slams Facebook over data protection
HBO picks up "Teenage Paparazzo"
Iran will not beg to avoid sanctions
Europe's climate satellite attempts third launch
BA, Iberia sign merger deal to create global giant
Gameworld: Apple's iPad takes video gaming seriously
Kyrgyz interim head speaks with Putin
Pakistani MPs do away with Zardari's crucial powers
|
Nokia eyes China boost for struggling music service
North Korea says will push South out of tourism deal
|
German Church abuse hotline flooded with calls
|
Iran will not beg to avoid sanctions: Ahmadinejad
|
Turkey, Greece agree to enhance military ties
|
US-TECH Summary
ASEAN summit aims for community amid Thai unrest
|
Obama and Medvedev cut nuclear arsenals, warn Iran
Nokia eyes China boost for struggling music service
Obama, Medvedev sign nuclear disarmament treaty
Taiwan's male 'Susan Boyle' a web sensation
Qatari diplomatic held in US flight scare
Obama, Medvedev meet before nuclear treaty signing
Protesters defy state of emergency in Bangkok
US treasury chief holds economic talks in China
Sri Lankans vote in parliamentary elections
Lung Function Of Many 9/11 Rescue Workers Continues To Decline
Imprisoned Chinese activist seeks medical parole
Teen Files Harrasment Charges Against Mom After She Hacks Facebook Account
Kate Gosselin Lands Own TLC Reality Shows
Kyrgyz forms interim govt backed by the army
LAX Delays Flights After Possible Security Breach
Freed American Journalist Recounts Life In Iranian Prison
Qutari Diplomat Arrested For Midair Bomb Scare
United, US Airways Reportedly In Merger Talks
ECB keeps main interest rate steady
Shania Twain Getting Reality Show On Oprah’s Network
Gameworld: Apple's iPad takes video gaming seriously
|
2 U.S. Soldiers Killed During Patrol In Iraq
Wi-Lan sues Apple, HP, others on Bluetooth patent
|
Thai govt clamps down on media over protests
Rescue Resumes At Mine After Toxic Gas Levels Decline
Thai "red shirt" protesters vow defiant mass rally
LinkedIn expands board with former search engine CEO
|
Afghan police: 5 suicide bombers arrested in Kabul
NKorea says it will reopen tours with new partner
Google, AOL patent win affirmed by appeals court
|
NKorea says it will reopen tours with new partner
Geithner to visit Beijing amid currency dispute
Pakistani stocks, o/n rates flat; rupee eases
Lawyer: Rio Tinto exec not to appeal sentence
Pakistan's forex reserves rise to $14.96 bln
Profit-taking, recovery fears weigh on Asian markets
Japan's Uniqlo enjoys surging profit
Nokia brings mobile music service to China
PREVIEW-Pakistan's March CPI seen up 12.5 pct y/y
Taiwan c.bank limits forex trade -traders
Political Job for Caine as star joins UK campaign
|
Hollywood filmmakers abuse lowly production staff
News
Hollywood filmmakers abuse lowly production staff
|
MGMT take fans on a psychedelic trip
Hollywood filmmakers abuse lowly production staff
Chinese imperial works smash records at auction
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights