By Carrie Cox

The conflation of WA’s unique biodiversity and an economy dependent on the resources sector has made modern minesite rehabilitation in this State one of the most uniquely collaborative practices in the world.

Dr Todd Erickson, a Senior Research Fellow in UWA’s School of Agriculture and Environment and Ecological Restoration Theme Leader at the Centre of Engineering Innovation, says international colleagues frequently comment on the close relationship between research, industry and government in WA to drive rehabilitation projects that meet and exceed regulatory requirements.

Image: Dr Todd Erickson.

“They often say, wow, how do you get all these different entities actually talking to each other?” Dr Erickson says. “I’ve come to see that we have a fairly unique working relationship in this State when it comes to minesite rehabilitation.

“I think it’s the fact that our beautiful biodiversity shares the same physical location as a resource-dependent economy. Managing this overlap really drives a synergy between government, academics and industry and the creation of an evidence-based approach to mine rehabiltation.”

Indicatively, major industry partners like BHP now host bespoke facilities on some of their minesites to enable UWA to carry out research on site and at scale in natural conditions.

“We’ve come a long way since the days of carrying out research in petri dishes in offsite labs,” Dr Erickson says. “It’s been an evolutionary journey of continuing to build on each new collaborative project and to keep delivering applied research that is actually translatable and meaningful for industry.”

The need for an evidence-based approach

Dr Erickson works with a multidisciplinary team comprising soil scientists, plant ecologists, mechanical engineers and restoration practitioners. Together they’re helping industry meet the challenges of restoring ancient landscapes and the encroaching impacts of climate change.

“Some of our land systems in WA are so ancient that they don’t rapidly recover from disturbance compared to Northern Hemisphere systems,” Dr Erickson explains. “It’s why an evidence-based approach to rehabilitation is so critical.

“When you get all the critical elements right – right seeds, right place and time, right weather conditions – it’s possible for a minesite to fully reinstate the target vegetation community in as little as two years, but if you don’t get it right, it could be hundreds of years before species naturally move back in.”

Going above and beyond

Dr Erickson says there is a growing commitment among industry players to exceed the expectations of regulators when it comes to minesite rehabilitation.

“Historically you were simply required to reinstate a safe, stable and non-polluting landscape, but as time has gone on the obligation is to also reinstate a more representative assemblage of the plant community that was originally there.

“Nowadays the social licence to mine means many companies want to go beyond mere compliance and meet the community’s expectation, which is you don’t leave my land barren.”

He says another welcome development in recent years has been the increasing involvement of traditional owners in rehabilitation projects.

“Historically the traditional owners were left out of those important initial decisions about how a site should be rehabilitated, but now there is a lot more engagement happening.

“And as custodians of the land, they can advise what other plant species the community might prefer, not just the ones that were there a couple of years ago. For example, there’s the opportunity to introduce bushfoods and medicines and culturally important species, not just spinifex.”

Dr Erickson says while the restoration of open-cut and strip-based minesites accounts for most of his team’s work at present, there is the potential to expand into other areas, such as agricultural land rehabilitation and accelerated recovery from bushfire devastation.