{"id":669255,"date":"2026-05-13T23:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/669255\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T23:58:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:58:15","slug":"greenbushes-residents-say-talisons-free-car-wash-plan-misses-the-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/669255\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenbushes residents say Talison’s free car wash plan misses the mark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents plagued by dust from Australia’s oldest and largest lithium mine say a plan for a free car wash by the mine’s owner misses the mark.<\/p>\n

Locals in Greenbushes, 240 kilometres south of Perth, have struggled to coexist<\/a> with blasting, dust and noise pollution from the world’s largest hard rock lithium mine, which sits adjacent to the historic town.<\/p>\n

The mine, owned by Sino-American company Talison Lithium, provides nearly 20 per cent of the world’s hard-rock lithium supply, which is crucial to the Australian energy transition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Talison has told the ABC it is in the planning stages for a free car wash in town, an idea initially proposed by residents.<\/p>\n

\"Photos<\/p>\n

A cloud of dust from a blast at the mine in January. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Resident Grant Mcdonald said while the car wash was much needed, it did not address the ongoing problems.<\/p>\n

“It’s very nice offering us a car wash, but we shouldn’t have to have one,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If you’re going to have a car wash it’s telling the world you know something’s wrong.”<\/p>\n

\"Composite<\/p>\n

Dust from the mine is a significant presence in and around Rick Fryer’s home. (Supplied: Rick Fryer)<\/p>\n

Residents have complained of persistent coughs, watering eyes and the nuisance of dealing with the thin white dust coating cars and homes.<\/p>\n

“My outside table is literally a millimetre thick with dust,” Mr Mcdonald said.<\/p>\n

“My car is covered every single day. I wash it one day, the following day it’s covered in dust.<\/p>\n

“At night time, if I turn my lights on, it looks like it’s snowing, glittering from the particles in the air.”<\/p>\n

Talison breached the dust exceedence limit 12 times in 2024\u201325 but said it had not done so since.<\/p>\n

Haul road newest problem<\/p>\n

Residents say upgrades to one of the town’s main roads, the key haulage route for the mine, are the newest major source of dust.<\/p>\n

Rick Fryer lives on Stanifer Street and agreed there was a strong need for the car wash.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rick Fryer says the company needs to do more to address the mine’s impact. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

“I think the car wash would be great, but I think the reasons we’re having a car wash is wrong,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been told it’s nothing bad health-wise, but I think you’d have to wait 20 years to actually find out.”<\/p>\n

Mr Fryer said heavy trucks now passed his home at all hours of the day.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rick Fryer says 200 trucks go past his front door everyday. (Supplied: Rick Fryer)<\/p>\n

“You’d imagine the biggest and best lithium mine in the world ought to be able to have their own purpose-built haul road without destroying the community,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They’ve reduced the dust element [from the mine] since last year. But you ask anybody around town they’ll say there’s more dust on the cars now than there has been before.”<\/p>\n

Mr Fryer said his garden was covered in dust and he had to wash his windscreen every morning or he would not be able to see out of it.<\/p>\n

Kellie Gillies lives in nearby Bridgetown, 7km from the mine, and said the car wash would not clean the air.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dust from the mine has impacted residents’ gardens, houses and cars. (Supplied: Rick Fryer)<\/p>\n

“There’s a certain irony in proposing a car rinse facility in the middle of an ongoing dust problem,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If vehicles constantly need rinsing because of dust exposure doesn’t that highlight the scale of the underlying issue rather than solve it?”<\/p>\n

A ‘better neighbour’<\/p>\n

In a statement, a Talison spokesperson said dust management at the source was a “priority” for the company.<\/p>\n

“We acknowledge that felt impacts can still occur even when\u00a0monitoring\u00a0shows compliance,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Asked why a car wash was necessary if dust was within limits, Talison said it was “part of [its] commitment to being better neighbours”.<\/p>\n

It said a location and opening date were yet to be finalised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents plagued by dust from Australia’s oldest and largest lithium mine say a plan for a free car…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,323063,8268,323061,134,323058,323060,323059,323062,41844,230554,45],"class_list":["post-669255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-car-wash","tag-critical-minerals","tag-dust-pollution","tag-entertainment","tag-greenbushes-dust","tag-greenbushes-mine","tag-lithium-dust","tag-lithium-mine","tag-south-west-news","tag-talison-lithium","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}