https://www.news.com.au/finance/busines ... 74a3e00425Chinese takeover of abandoned WA island ‘paradise’ close to military training area sparks concerns.
A Chinese-linked company has been allowed to take over a tiny island “paradise” just off Western Australia, close to a military training area.
A Chinese-linked company has been granted a mining licence on a remote West Australian island close to a military training area, sparking concerns inside the federal government, according to reports.
Cockatoo Island is a tiny, 31 square kilometre island in the Buccaneer Archipelago off northwestern WA’s Kimberley region, around 2000 kilometres from Perth.
The island, which boasts an airstrip, was mined for iron ore by BHP from the 1950s to the 1980s and was briefly home to a four-star tourist resort built by disgraced businessman Alan Bond in the 1980s using the old mining village’s infrastructure.
A sign greeting visitors to the resort once read, “Welcome to the least known island paradise in the world.”
Mining resumed on Cockatoo Island in the 1990s under HWE Mining and later Pluton Resources, until the Perth-based company collapsed in 2015.
In October, it was announced that a private, Hong Kong-based company was the new owner of the abandoned iron ore operations, with WA’s Department of Mines approving a new lease that will expire in 2032.
Darwin Port, a Whitsunday island, airports in WA, Daru Island, Hobart what next?
