The Department of Defence has agreed to pay a $22 million settlement to a class action by the Wreck Bay community whose cultural practices have been devastated by a toxic firefighting contamination on their traditional land.
The historic out-of-court settlement was announced at Sydney’s Federal Court yesterday just days before the matter was listed to go to court.
The settlement will result in $17 million compensation to the community, with $5 million going to administration and legal costs for those impacted by the use of PFAS chemicals.
It is reported up to one thousand people are eligible to share the compensation.
Wreck Bay man Joe Brown-McLeod said “The suffering and pain the community has gone through is impossible to quantify.”
He said, ” They can’t take children to special places anymore in fear of them being contaminated.”
Wreck Bay woman Therese Ardler said, ” No amount of money can make up for the cultural practices lost because of the PFAS contamination.
Ms Ardler said, “Our falls up the back, the waterfall and the stream where they used to wash the fire hose from the foam they used, we used to swim in those creeks and drink that water when we were little.”
“It’s like we’ve been stripped of our heritage and our cultural gathering places, you can’t go to certain places. For our children, they won’t be able to go to places on country because of the contamination,” she said.
The settlement will still need to be approved as fair and reasonable by the Federal Court.
