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Rum Jungle, Northern Territory

Coordinates: 12°59′39.8″S 131°01′22.7″E / 12.994389°S 131.022972°E / -12.994389; 131.022972
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Rum Jungle
Northern Territory
Rum Jungle is located in Northern Territory
Rum Jungle
Rum Jungle
Location in Northern Territory
Coordinates12°59′39.8″S 131°01′22.7″E / 12.994389°S 131.022972°E / -12.994389; 131.022972
Population84 (2016 census)[1]
Postcode(s)0845
LGA(s)Coomalie Shire
Territory electorate(s)Daly
Federal division(s)Lingiari
Rum Jungle
Browns Oxide Project entry gate, 2009
Location
Rum Jungle is located in Australia
Rum Jungle
Rum Jungle
Location in Australia
LocationBatchelor
TerritoryNorthern Territory
CountryAustralia
Coordinates12°59′S 131°01′E / 12.983°S 131.017°E / -12.983; 131.017
Production
ProductsUranium
History
Discovered1949
Opened1950
Closed1971
Location of key Northern Territory uranium mines
Water scene on Poett's old coffee plantation, Rum Jungle, around the start of the 20th century
Malachite specimen from Rum Jungle, 10.5 × 6.5 × 3.2 cm

Rum Jungle or Unrungkoolpum is a locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located about 105 kilometres south of Darwin on the East Branch of the Finniss River. It is 10 kilometres west of Batchelor.[2][3][4] and it shares a boundary with Litchfield National Park.

The joint traditional owners of this area are the Kungarakan and Warai peoples, and their rights to the land are recognised in the Finnis River Land Claim, which was granted in May 1981.[5][6]

The European name for this area derives from an incident in March 1873 when miners from the nearby John Bull goldmine met a teamster who was carting stores between Southport and Pine Creek. The teamster tapped a cask of rum that he was carrying and shared it with locals. After waking up from the effects of the teamster's hospitality, they found that he had stolen 750 ounces (21 kg) of their gold, along with their horses, and disappeared. Searches for the thief lasted for a number of months until he and the gold were found.[7][8] The name was first used when reporting the death of Patrick Flynn in November 1873.[9]

Rum Jungle is best known as the site of a uranium deposit, found in 1949, which was mined between 1954 and 1971, producing 3,530 tonnes of uranium oxide, as well as 20,000 tonnes of copper concentrate.[10]

History

[edit]

The first European person to travel to the Rum Jungle area was George Goyder in 1869. During his exploration, he noted an unidentified copper-like green ore at "Giants Reef", which was later "rediscovered" and identified to be torbernite.[11] That discovery received minimal attention at the time and other European and Chinese people began occupying the area, especially after the discovery of gold in the 1870s. Prospectors also occasionally mined copper and other minerals on a small scale.[4]

Those new arrivals exposed the local Aboriginal people, the Kungarakan and Warai, to a variety of illnesses and diseases, including smallpox, leprosy and tuberculosis. Aboriginal people were also subjected to trauma including the sexual exploitation of women, forced migration and massacres.[4]

One such was the Stapleton Siding Massacre in July 1895 in which 80 Aboriginal people were killed following the distribution of poisoned damper (food)|dnamper). Joe 'Pumeri' McGuinness was told the story by his mother Alngindabu, who survived the massacre, and said of it:[12]

The majority of the tribe (Kungarakany)... about one hundred people, became victims of poisoned damper... at a railway siding known as Stapleton... weed-killing powder... was supposedly mistaken for baking powder and added to the flour in preparing damper. Those who ate the poisoned damper became violently ill before their death.

— Joe McGuinness, Son of Alyandabu my fight for Aboriginal rights (1991)

Thatt was one of at least three poisoning incidents suffered by the Kungarakan people.[13]

One notable early European resident was Nellie Flynn, who was only about 145cm tall and who arrived in the area in 1909. There she met her future husband, Tom Flynn, who was 189cm tall, and was believed to have walked the 2,000km from Cooktown, Queensland. Nellie Flynn lived in the area until the 1970s and became a well-known character.[14][15]

Mining at Rum Jungle

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Uranium mining

[edit]

In April 1948, a notice was published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette that the Government was offering a rewards of £25,000 for the discovery of uranium ore in Australia.[16] The reward was offered due to an increased demand for uranium following World War II, and the United States and Britain had identified Australia as a potential source.[4]

In 1949, John Michael "Jack" White discovered torbernite in the shafts of old copper mines.[17] White was a buffalo shooter, crocodile hunter and prospector, who ran a small farm in the area with his Aboriginal partner, whose name has not been disclosed. He recognised the uranium ore from a color pamphlet that had been produced as part of the announcement of the reward. He delivered his samples to the Mines Branch in Darwin on 13 August 1949, and was later able to collect the full reward.[4] News of the discovery was published throughout Australia.[18][19][20][21]

In 1952, the Australian Government funded the setting up of a mine and treatment plant to provide uranium oxide concentrate to the UK-US Combined Development Agency under a contract which ran from 1953 to 1962.[22][23]

The mine was officially opened on 17 September 1954 by the Prime Minister Robert Menzies, who promised that "[t]he world will forget about atomic bombs and concentrate on using uranium for the benefit of humankind" while also talking about its importance in terms of the defence of Australia.[24][25][26][27][28] On 13 September, days before the mine officially opened, four staff of the mine were killed when two trucks collided.[29][30]

The mine was the responsibility of Commonwealth Government, through the Australian Atomic Energy Commission, although management of it was by Territory Enterprises Pty Limited, a subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group, on a contract basis. Batchelor, a nearby town, accommodated most of the mining personnel and grew significantly at that time.[23]

By 1959, the economically viable ore had been extracted but operations continued on a small scale until 1963. Other work continued there until April 1971, with stockpiled ore from Rum Jungle and other sites around Australia, including from Eva Creek and Adelaide River, continued to be processed.[4][31][32] A total of 863,000 tonnes of Uranium ore were processed and much was sold on the open market; some of this was also stockpiled and held in storage at Lucas Heights Reactor in Sydney.[31]

Pollution and cleanup

[edit]

The Rum Jungle mine closed in April 1971[33] and the 200-hectare (490-acre) site was abandoned.[34] The Federal Government (which controlled the mine through its agency the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC), now known as Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) decided not to rehabilitate the mine site [why?]. The mining company Conzinc, now part of the Rio Tinto Group, which owns Energy Resources of Australia (ERA), operators of the Ranger Uranium Mine in Kakadu National Park, consistently denied any responsibility for rehabilitation. That led to the mine becoming known as one of Australia's most polluted environments,[23] due to the oxidation of sulphides and the release of acid and metals into the East Branch of the Finniss River. The 1500 mm annual rainfall, along with the pyritic mineralisation in the area, created ideal conditions for such oxidation.[citation needed]

An initial attempt to clean up Rum Jungle was made in 1977, following the Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry (1976 - 1977), which led to the setting-up of a working group to examine more comprehensive rehabilitation. A $16.2 million Commonwealth-funded program got under way in 1983 to remove heavy metals and neutralise the tailings. Of the damage to the Rum Jungle area the Commissioner of the Inquiry, Justice Russell Fox stated:[35]

[Rum Jungle] represents to many people, not least of all the Aboriginal people, an awful example of what should not be allowed to happen.

— Justice Russell Fox, Commissioner, Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry, 1977

Elevated gamma radiation, alpha-radioactive dust, and significant radon daughter concentrations were detected. The levels were so high that, in the late 1980s, it was decided that something had to be done.[by whom?] Radiation protection standards had been revised, so that the levels of pollution were officially recognised as unsafe for human health. As a result, a supplementary $1.8 million program to improve Rum Jungle Creek South waste dumps was undertaken in 1990.[citation needed]

One of the main environmental problems associated with uranium mining is the creation of large volumes of radioactive mine waste (tailings) which are left behind on the site. The major radioactive component of the tailings is uranium-238, which makes up over 99% of what is naturally occurring uranium, and is not very radioactive. While figures concerning the half-life of an isotope are often presented as meaning the element is more dangerous, in the case of Uranium-238 being 4.47 billion years, the opposite is in fact true: half-life is the time in which half of a collection of an element will decay, and produce a radioactive particle, ergo, the longer the half-life, the less radioactive the element. In 2003, a government survey of the tailings piles at Rum Jungle found that capping, which was supposed to help contain the radioactive waste for at least 100 years, had failed in less than 20 years.[36] The Northern Territory and Federal Governments continued to argue over responsibility for funding rehabilitation on the polluted East Finniss River.[37] Contamination of local groundwater has yet to be addressed.[38]

Rum Jungle Lake
[edit]

One of the principal problems associated with rehabilitating the Rum Jungle Creek South (RJCS) open cut mine was that, after mining ceased, the mine pit was converted to a lake known as Rum Jungle Lake. It is considered to be the only water body in the Darwin region not infested with crocodiles and, after the mine's closure, it quickly became very popular with locals and Darwin residents as a recreation reserve, for activities including swimming, canoeing and scuba diving.[39][40] In November 2010, the lake was closed to the public after a series of recordings showed low levels of radiation. After testing by the Environmental Research Institute, it was decided that the site was safe and it was reopened in October 2012.[41] In June 2024, the Coomalie Community Government Council released a community survey regarding planned further rehabilitation works on the lake.[42]

Brown's Oxide Project

[edit]

In December 2001, Compass Resources lodged a Referral under the EPBC Act with Environment Australia (which is now DEH). That document referred to the proposed development of a large-scale mining project, the Browns Polymetallic Project, that would produce lead, cobalt, copper, nickel and silver, over a project life of at least 15 years. As indicated in the 2001 Referral, Compass considered that the Browns Polymetallic Project was a "nuclear action" under the EPBC Act, on the basis that the project could be considered to include rehabilitating a facility or area in which mining or milling of uranium ore had previously been undertaken.[43]

Compass suspended its work on the polymetallic proposal in 2002, after low metal prices caused the withdrawal of Compass's financial partner, Doe Run.[44]

In 2005, Compass lodged an application for a much smaller project, focusing on cobalt, nickel and copper mining. Because that project, the Brown's Oxide Project, was much smaller than the polymetallic project proposed previously, Compass was in a position to develop it on its own.

The Northern Territory Government assessed the project and Marion Scrymgour, the Minister for Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage in the Northern Territory Government, concluded that the Browns Oxide Project, as proposed in the Public Environmental Report and subsequent documents, "can be managed without unacceptable environmental impacts"

During question time in the Northern Territory Parliament on 4 May 2006, Kon Vatskalis, the Minister for Mines and Energy, announced the approval as "good news". To ensure the environment was managed properly, the approval was subject to final review by the Commonwealth Government, under a bilateral agreement between the two governments.[45] Pending final Commonwealth approval, the project is set to be in production by early 2007.[citation needed]

While the project was located near the old Rum Jungle mine, the Browns Oxide Project targeted copper cobalt and nickel, not uranium. Nonetheless, Compass acknowledged that, at some future point, it would be interested in mining uranium at the nearby Rum Jungle site, over which it held a lease. Any proposal to mine uranium would require a totally new application and environmental assessment as a separate project.[citation needed]

Geology of the region

[edit]

The major uranium prospects of Brown's, Intermediate, White's, White's extension and Dyson's, occur northwest of, but parallel to, the north-east trending Giant's Reef Fault. Ore deposits occur in Precambrian carbonaceous slate and graphitic schist of the Lower Proterozoic Brooks Creek Group. Structurally, the deposits are within a sheared anticline on the southern flank of a granite dome. Primary minerals include chalcopyrite, bornite, bournonite, pyrite, and uraninite. Oxidized ores include azurite, malachite, pseudomalachite, iron oxides, torbernite, saleeite, and phosphuranylite.[46]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Rum Jungle (State Suburb)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2017. Edit this at Wikidata
  2. ^ "About the Kungarakan Culture & Education Association". Kungarakan Culture & Education Association. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  3. ^ "Rum Jungle uranium mine opens | Australia's Defining Moments Digital Classroom | National Museum of Australia". digital-classroom.nma.gov.au. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Rum Jungle uranium mine". National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  5. ^ Government, Northern Territory (27 March 2024). "Rum Jungle History". NT.GOV.AU. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  6. ^ Australia. Office of the Aboriginal Land Commissioner (1982), Finniss River land claim : report, Government Printer, ISBN 978-0-644-01874-6
  7. ^ Beatty, Bill (2 August 1947). "There's drama & tragedy in place names". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 8. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  8. ^ "Rum Jungle". NT Place Names Register. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  9. ^ "Northern Territory Times". Northern Territory Times and Gazette. Vol. I, no. 4. Northern Territory, Australia. 28 November 1873. p. 2. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "Rum Jungle". Department of Mines and Energy. Northern Territory Government. 2013. Archived from the original on 1 April 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  11. ^ Annabell, Ross (1971). The Uranium Hunters. Adelaide: Rigby Limited. pp. 23–27. ISBN 0727002627.
  12. ^ Joe McGinness (1991), Son of Alyandabu my fight for aboriginal rights, St Lucia, Qld., Queensland, Australia University of Queensland Press, ISBN 978-0-7022-2335-8
  13. ^ "Stapleton Siding (Perrmadjin)". Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  14. ^ "Nellie Flynn (Territory Women)". Territory Stories. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  15. ^ Byrne, Conor; Tetlow, Miranda (23 July 2020). "Nellie 'Shotgun' Flynn — the grand dame of Batchelor". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  16. ^ "Rewards for the discovery of uranium ore in the Commonwealth and its Territories". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 55. Australia, Australia. 5 April 1948. p. 1848. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ Zoellner, Tom (2009). Uranium. New York: Penguin Books. p. 186. ISBN 9780143116721.
  18. ^ "Uranium Find Rum Jungle". Kalgoorlie Miner. Vol. 55, no. 14, 511. Western Australia. 20 September 1949. p. 1. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  19. ^ "Uranium find at Rum Jungle". Maryborough Chronicle. 21 September 1949. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ^ "Uranium Find Reported". Daily Mirror. No. 2580. New South Wales, Australia. 7 September 1949. p. 3. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  21. ^ "Uranium Field Discovered". The Central Queensland Herald. Vol. 19, no. 1072. Queensland, Australia. 6 October 1949. p. 13. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. ^ "Spectacular Activity At Rum Jungle". The Canberra Times. Vol. 28, no. 8, 145. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 5 October 1953. p. 2. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  23. ^ a b c Mudd, G.M.; Patterson, J. (2010). "Continuing Pollution From the Rum Jungle U-Cu Project: A Critical Evaluation of Environmental Monitoring and Rehabilitation". Environmental Pollution. 158 (5): 1252–1260. Bibcode:2010EPoll.158.1252M. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2010.01.017. PMID 20176422.
  24. ^ "Rum Jungle ore to supply Australia's power needs: Prime Minister's forecast at opening of uranium plant". Kalgoorlie Miner. Vol. 60, no. 16907. Western Australia. 18 September 1954. p. 2. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  25. ^ "Milestone for Rum Jungle". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate. No. 24, 305. New South Wales, Australia. 1 September 1954. p. 5. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  26. ^ "Rum Jungle Project Opening Today". The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. 97, no. 29, 930. South Australia. 17 September 1954. p. 2. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  27. ^ "Menzies sets £3M uranium". The Courier-mail. Queensland, Australia. 18 September 1954. p. 3. Retrieved 6 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  28. ^ "Our uranium aid in defence". The Sun. No. 13, 915. New South Wales, Australia. 17 September 1954. p. 9. Retrieved 6 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  29. ^ "Dead At Rum Jungle Named". The West Australian. Vol. 70, no. 21, 262. Western Australia. 14 September 1954. p. 4. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  30. ^ "Four killed as trucks hit head-on". The West Australian. Vol. 70, no. 21, 261. Western Australia. 13 September 1954. p. 3. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  31. ^ a b "Rum Jungle". Australian Nuclear and Uranium Sites. 16 June 2012. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  32. ^ "Eva Creek – mining legacies". Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  33. ^ Simper, Errol (2 October 1971). "A mining village refuses to die". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  34. ^ "NT wants $16m for Rum Jungle clean-up". Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995). 10 July 1982. p. 3. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  35. ^ "Rum Jungle uranium mine opens | Australia's Defining Moments Digital Classroom | National Museum of Australia". digital-classroom.nma.gov.au. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  36. ^ Taylor,G. Spain,A. Nefiodovas,A. Timms,G. Kuznetsov,V. Bennett, J. (2003). "Determination of the reasons for deterioration of the Rum Jungle waste rock cover" (PDF). Australian Centre for Mining Environmental Research. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 February 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  37. ^ Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment (2002). "Rum Jungle Monitoring Report 1993-1998" (PDF). Technical Report 2002/1. pp. 176–9.[permanent dead link‍]
  38. ^ Mudd, G. (2004). "The continuing Rum Jungle dilemma : accounting for ground-surface water interactions in AMD polluted systems" (PDF). Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology Conference, UMH IV. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 December 2005.
  39. ^ "Rum Jungle Lake at Batchelor, Northern Territory, Australia". Tourism NT. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  40. ^ "Rum Jungle Lake". Cave Divers Association of Australia. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  41. ^ "Old uranium site reopened for swimming". ABC News. 15 October 2012. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  42. ^ "Rum Jungle Lake Project | Coomalie Community Government Council". www.coomalie.nt.gov.au. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  43. ^ Brown's Oxide – Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts Archived 2006-09-06 at the Wayback Machine
  44. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  45. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). aspect.comsec.com.au. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 30 June 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  46. ^ Heinrich, E. Wm. (1958). Mineralogy and Geology of Radioactive Raw Materials. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. pp. 317–319.
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