{"id":1125579,"date":"2026-08-02T07:48:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T07:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1125579\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T07:48:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T07:48:40","slug":"dust-storms-would-ground-kalgoorlie-boulder-to-a-halt-until-the-people-fought-back-and-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1125579\/","title":{"rendered":"Dust storms would ground Kalgoorlie-Boulder to a halt, until the people fought back and won"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doug Daws remembers when colossal dust storms would regularly strike his outback hometown, grinding life to a halt and sending people sprinting indoors.<\/p>\n

“You could hear the wind coming, and you’d say, ‘quick, quick, get inside, the Esperance doctor’s coming’, and you had to race inside and close all the windows and doors,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Never really worked \u2026 the dust was very, very bad.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Doug Daws remembers the huge columns of red dust moving towards the city, but the grey dust was worse, in his opinion. (ABC Goldifelds: Nicholas R Ward)<\/p>\n

For decades, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 700 kilometres east of Perth, was plagued by choking clouds of dust blowing off the treeless plains north of the city, and from mine tailings in the south.<\/p>\n

Mr Daws has lived in the mining city his whole life and thinks people today do not appreciate how bad the dust was.<\/p>\n

“The storms were fairly fierce,” Mr Daws said.<\/p>\n

“We have no problem now, really, to speak of; it’s so small, it’s infinitesimal.”<\/p>\n

Dust storms had been a problem since the 1890s.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

“During some times of the day, all traffic and business were suspended,” the Morning Herald reported on October 17, 1898. (Supplied: Eastern Goldfields Historical Society)<\/p>\n

“A lot of people just said, ‘Oh, you’re in a mining town, you’re an outback town, you’ve just got to accept it,'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Daws said<\/p>\n

“Well, we have a saying here \u2026 we just get shit done.”<\/p>\n

A man for all seasons<\/p>\n

In 1973, a man called Julian Grill arrived in Kalgoorlie-Boulder from another historic town: Broken Hill.<\/p>\n

Mr Grill arrived with a radical idea to stop the dust.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Before going onto state politics, Julian Grill spearheaded a controversial anti-dust initiative in Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the 1970’s. (Lee Griffith\/Pool\/The West Australian, file photo: AAP)<\/p>\n

“He was a very persuasive talker, and he convinced us that we should give it a go,” Mr Daws recalled.<\/p>\n

“And to his absolute credit, he and the blokes out of the AG [agriculture] department \u2026 came up with a workable solution.”<\/p>\n

Mr Daws was Boulder shire president at the time and remembered thinking the idea was far-fetched, but the town was struggling with a slump in gold prices, so he thought they did not have much to lose.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

With a $10,000 state grant, the committee set about meticulously studying dust. (1981 Department of Conservation and Environment Report)<\/p>\n

From there, Mr Grill became chair of the newly established Goldfields Dust Abatement Committee.<\/p>\n

A lesson in history<\/p>\n

Severe dust storms dated back to the region’s gold rush in the 1890s, when tens of thousands flocked to the area.<\/p>\n

One of the earliest recorded storms was in 1894, two years after the first gold discoveries.<\/p>\n

\"Historic<\/p>\n

In 1894 the Coolgardie Miner described one of the storms: “A dust storm of unexampled severity passed over the town on Saturday last, and endured the whole day \u2026 causing almost total suspension of business.” (Supplied: JJ Dwyer\/Eastern Goldfields Historical Society)<\/p>\n

It was a problem being created and worsened by mining; in the early days the new industry needed wood for tunnels, pumps and heating.<\/p>\n

In less than a decade, locals had cleared land around Kalgoorlie-Boulder, and small railways spread out hundreds of kilometres to gather timber.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The almost complete clear-felling of forests around Kalgoorlie-Boulder meant dust storms could move unimpeded across the region (Supplied: Eastern Goldfields Historical Society)<\/p>\n

The deforestation destabilised the region’s fine dusty topsoil.<\/p>\n

As the miners kept digging for gold, tailings were created and left piles of grey dirt which the wind picked up and carried into town.<\/p>\n

\"Timber<\/p>\n

The region’s early mining industry had an almost insatiable need for timber to frame tunnels, run steam turbines and heat houses. (Supplied: Gwalia Museum)<\/p>\n

The beginning of the end<\/p>\n

The studies confirmed that dust storms were primarily coming from this deforestation and mine refuse.<\/p>\n

The committee came up with a plan that Mr Daws said seemed “nuts”.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The process was slow but monitoring showed by the 1980s it was working. (1981 Department of Conservation and Environment Report)<\/p>\n

Wood chips were spread over the desert floor, saplings planted in arid shrubland and mine tailings were covered in rocks.<\/p>\n

To block dust hitting the city from the north, six reserves were created which would become 3,500 hectares of forest.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

With limited funds, the committee bought a woodchipper to preserve ground moisture in reserves. (1981 Department of Conservation and Environment report)<\/p>\n

The reserve was controversial, with 300 saplings being destroyed by vandals and forcing the committee to fence off the area.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Researchers tried novel strategies to see what would work to reduce the dust. (1981 Department of Conservation and Environment report)<\/p>\n

“We went out and built these zones and forbade people from going there with threats when we had absolutely no legislative protection or authority to do so,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Daws said.<\/p>\n

“But sometimes you just gotta go and do things, don’t you?”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Eastern Goldfields was once covered in hundreds of tailing dumps. (1981 Department of Conservation and Environment report)<\/p>\n

Next, the committee needed to stabilise hundreds of mine tailings. Most methods were prohibitively expensive, so in the late 80s, almost all tailings were taken and put into a single storage area.<\/p>\n

By 1981, the dust storms still hit, but as they got closer to town, the severity had reduced.<\/p>\n

\"Bushland,<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, hundreds of square kilometres surround Kalgoorlie were clear-felled but the forest has returned. (ABC Goldfields-Esperance: Nathan Morris)<\/p>\n

Working for the next generation<\/p>\n

It took 20 years for the dust abatement to take full effect.<\/p>\n

While dust still impacts the region, the levels are usually well below the 50 micrograms per cubic metre national air quality recommendations.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A tree planting day by Kalgoorlie-Boulder Urban Landcare Group this year. (ABC Goldifelds: Nicholas R Ward)<\/p>\n

In 1994, with its mission largely complete, the committee turned into the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Urban Land Care Group (KBULCG).<\/p>\n

Today, it is focused on greening efforts, conducting plantings around town and maintaining the huge reserves that still protect the area.<\/p>\n

The once controversial forest is now a popular recreation area for locals, parts now hosting walking trails, playgrounds and picnic areas.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kim Eckert planting a tree at the KBULCG planting day. (ABC Goldifelds: Nicholas R Ward)<\/p>\n

KBULCG chief executive Kim Eckhert said the town would be very different today without the committee.<\/p>\n

“It was a radical plan, and it just shows you what foresight they had back in those days to understand the impact of all of that,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Eckhert said.<\/p>\n

Today, the group is largely volunteer-run, with hundreds of locals donating their time.<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

KBULCG volunteer Krishan Coona says he joined because it was an opportunity to connect with the community and help the environment. (ABC Goldifelds: Nicholas R Ward)<\/p>\n

For Mr Daws, tackling the dust is still one of his proudest achievements.<\/p>\n

“I just happened to be there at the time, as I said, a bit reluctantly, was drawn into it, but we backed Julian, it worked, we’re proud of that,” Mr Daws said.<\/p>\n

“The dust problem in Kalgoorlie now is basically non-existent.<\/p>\n

“People that say, ‘oh, it’s very dusty here’, quite frankly, don’t know what they’re talking about.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Doug Daws remembers when the dust would blanket the town. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doug Daws remembers when colossal dust storms would regularly strike his outback hometown, grinding life to a halt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1125580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3843],"tags":[3927,306242,236205,728,327,306240,306241,306239,70,16,15,29592],"class_list":["post-1125579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-deforestation","tag-doug-dawes","tag-dust-storms","tag-environment","tag-gold","tag-goldfields-dust-abatement-committee","tag-julian-grill","tag-kalgoorlie-boulder","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wa-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117024820343046021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1125580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}