Profit Over Place: Memory, Industry, and Loss in Regional Australia

Jo Coghlan

Australia’s environmental history is often told through stories of success; tales of green spaces preserved, historic architecture protected, and natural landscapes rescued from the grip of development. Much of this narrative revolves around urban spaces, especially the legacy of the Green Bans movement in Sydney and Melbourne. Yet beyond the city fringes lies a more complex and overlooked story: the tragic loss of Australia’s regional commons. In the 1970s, a shift in public consciousness brought new awareness to environmental degradation and heritage destruction. Sparked by the global environmental movement and local activism, Australia began implementing legislation to protect land and heritage. But political interests, economic pressures, and development greed often undermined these efforts. The most successful protections, like those resulting from the Green Bans, were largely confined to urban areas. Inner-city suburbs saw working-class homes, colonial buildings, and green parks saved from demolition. In contrast, rural and regional Australia faced a far less hopeful fate.

The Green Bans were a powerful union-led movement. Spearheaded by the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF), they successfully halted destructive developments in urban centers. Sydney’s historic Rocks precinct, the terrace homes of Glebe, and green sanctuaries like Centennial Park were all spared thanks to collective action between workers and local communities. These victories reshaped Australia’s environmental and heritage policy landscape and eventually contributed to the introduction of pivotal legislation such as the 1977 Heritage Act and the 1979 Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. While these achievements were groundbreaking, they highlight an omission: the protection of non-urban spaces. Regional areas were often excluded from the same level of activism and legal support. The reasons are deeply embedded in Australia’s historical and cultural attitudes. Regional lands were frequently viewed not as places of natural beauty or cultural value, but as tainted ‘unnatural’ spaces. Many were sites of Indigenous dispossession, industrial use, militarisation, and environmental contamination. This perception made it easier for governments and developers to justify their transformation or destruction.

Woomera in South Australia exemplifies this. Once a thriving town of over 7000 people, today it is home to only a small fraction of its former population. Woomera has long been tied to defense and surveillance, used as a missile testing site and, later, as a detention center for asylum seekers. Despite being built on the traditional lands of the Kokatha people, its strategic importance to national defense overrode any consideration for Indigenous land rights or environmental preservation. The area was treated as expendable; a zone of militarised isolation rather than a valued landscape. Lake Pedder in Tasmania, is a site whose loss still resonates as a national ecological tragedy. With its unique glacial features and breathtaking scenery, it was once a jewel of the Tasmanian wilderness. Yet despite vigorous campaigning by conservationists, the lake was flooded in 1972 to make way for a hydroelectric scheme. Protesters followed all the rules of democracy including petitions, public advocacy, and reasoned arguments, yet they were no match for the combined forces of government and industrial interests. Unlike the successful Franklin River campaign a decade later, the Lake Pedder movement failed, revealing the limits of respectable environmental advocacy in the face of systemic power.

Wittenoom in Western Australia tells another heartbreaking story. Known as ‘Australia’s Chernobyl,’ the former mining town was the site of blue asbestos extraction from the 1940s to the 1960s. Despite mounting evidence of health risks, the mine remained open until profitability waned. By the early 21st century, Wittenoom had become the most contaminated site in the Southern Hemisphere. Thousands of former residents died from asbestos-related diseases, and the town was formally degazetted and erased from official maps. What remains is a toxic legacy and a chilling reminder of how easily economic priorities can outweigh human and environmental health. Yallourn in Victoria also presents a cautionary tale. Built by the State Electricity Commission in the 1920s as a model town for coal workers, it was a vibrant community with distinctive architecture and a strong social fabric. Yet the coal beneath its foundations eventually sealed its fate. In the 1980s, the town was demolished to expand open-cut mining operations. Efforts to save it, including early attempts at regional Green Bans, were unsuccessful. The area remains heavily impacted by the coal industry, with health studies indicating high rates of mesothelioma among residents.

These examples—Woomera, Lake Pedder, Wittenoom, and Yallourn—reflect different kinds of loss: cultural, environmental, social, and personal. Together, they raise important questions about how Australia values land. Urban landscapes have often been framed as central to national identity, worthy of preservation and celebration. Regional and rural lands, however, have been more easily sacrificed, viewed through utilitarian or strategic lenses. Yet for the people who lived in these places, the land held deep emotional and cultural meaning; these were more than just sites on a map—they were homes, sources of identity, and places of belonging. The environmental movement has made strides in protecting Australia’s natural heritage, but it must also reckon with the uneven geography of preservation. The stories of lost regional lands remind us that environmental justice is not only about saving beautiful places, it is also about recognising the value of places already written off as disposable. There is a need to expand the discourse beyond aesthetics and economics to include emotional, cultural, and historical attachments to land.

In many ways, the tragedy of Australia’s regional commons lies in how easily they were dismissed. Too often, these lands were marked as already ruined by colonization and dispossession, industry, or contamination thus not worth saving. But the memories and meanings tied to these spaces endure, carried by former residents, Indigenous communities, and those who continue to advocate for justice and recognition. As Australia continues to grapple with climate change, deindustrialisation, and Indigenous reconciliation, these forgotten places demand renewed attention. They challenge us to rethink our definitions of value, beauty, and heritage. They remind us that even the most seemingly ‘unnatural’ places can hold profound significance, and that no land should be left behind in the national story.

 

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