Outback town's residents still struggle with poison beneath their feet

Years ago I made a promise to some folk from the remote outback town of Katherine in the Northern Territory.

I wouldn't forget them, and more importantly I wouldn't forget about the government's poisoning of their town.

After almost five years as Editor of their weekly paper, they said no-one knew their story better.

More about the Defence Department's rough handling of these folk later.

If you've never heard of their continued suffering, or even where Katherine is located. You are not alone.

The Territory is short of media scrutiny.

It is short of media full stop.

When I left to return to Victoria in 2021 our little paper was the second last of its kind remaining in the entire NT.

I was an outsider when I arrived and I was still an outsider when I left Katherine, a quirky town of about 10,000 people about three hours (at posted speed limit of 130kmh) from Darwin.

My wife had taken up a job in Palmerston, just outside Darwin, and I had followed her up.

The last of the kids had just left home, time for an adventure.

As I said, there's not much in the way of media in the Territory and I was left scratching for a job, hence Katherine.

Somehow, we made it work.

I found a few supporters among the town's leading citizens who recognised I was giving the job my best, and gathered some critics along the way as well.

Most of the townsfolk couldn't have care less either way who the local newspaper man was, as long as they turned up to take pictures of the kids' sports.

I was okay with that.

It was those leading citizens who won a promise for me as I headed back home.

Keep reporting on PFAS.

PFAS is a family of chemicals which were found to be almost magical in keeping moisture off clothing, food containers.

The non-stick stuff on your fry pans is PFAS.

It was also discovered to be fantastic at smothering fires when added to foams.

I forgot to say there is a whacking great air base called Tindal, just 10km from Katherine.

Tindal RAAF Base is the biggest in the nation, and with the added investment from our new best friends from the USA, is rapidly becoming even bigger and more important.

If there is ever an attack on the mainland, the first military response will come from Tindal.

I reckon our first land-based missiles will be dug in there.

From 1988 to 2004, PFAS-laden firefighting foams were used in the almost daily firefighting training out at the base.

No-one can figure out how much was used but there was oceans of it.

At the time it was considered safe, local fire brigades used to squirt the stuff about for the kids to play in at town carnivals and the like.

By the time the world had woken up to the its dangers it was everywhere.

We all have some PFAS in us, it is called the forever chemical after all.

At Tindal's fire training area the residue was contained in earthen walls and then allowed to seep away.

It soaked into the ground, into the underground artesian basin and headed like an arrow straight at the heart of Katherine to flow directly under the town and into the once pristine river.

Tests quickly found the town's drinking water was above allowed safety limits (whatever that means).

Even the town's swimming pool was red hot with the stuff, everybody out.

Defence paid for new filters at the pool and a new water filtration plant for the town.

Defence even paid some Katherine landowners $92.5 million in 2020 as a result of the first successful class action on PFAS contamination over lost property values.

Residents of Oakey (Queensland) and Williamtown (NSW) also won a payout because of contamination seeping from their own air bases.

It was a one-off, some folk used their compo to buy a Toyota Prado.

The lawyers are circling again, I am told. This time it was be a claim on health grounds.

The PFAS "plume" is still seeping from Tindal.

The area of contamination is growing by the year.

Now there is to be another study, the time into land uses for contaminated private property around the bases.

In the early days people wanted the government to buy them out.

Back then the government thought it would be too expensive for them to admit there was a problem.

The Federal government review will focus on communities around the first three - Williamtown, Oakey and, of course, Tindal.

The review will "explore alternative uses for impacted land around the three key Defence bases".

Most think it will finally lead to land buybacks, helping to increase the size of the bases and make some nasty ongoing problems go away.

But that's probably the worst thing about PFAS, it tends to stick around.

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