Broken Hill is an Australian mining town steeped in history. The town’s legacy of union struggles for workers’ rights is chronicled through street plaques, protected heritage buildings, and murals reminiscent of early-20th-century Mexican muralism.

Under the expansive grey sky over Broken Hill, enormous mining wealth has been created – stretching from Australia to northern Chile and further. As with most forms of wealth, it is rooted in human hardship. In Broken Hill, mining wealth has been accumulated at the cost of children’s exposure to lead contamination. 

Last July, Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state government, which includes Broken Hill, announced AU$37.3 million (approximately US$26.74 million) to address lead contamination. The funding, as stated in the announcement, will lead to a “twofold increase in the number of homes remediated annually, including the removal of lead-based paint to eliminate lead contamination, the installation of grass to trap dust, and enhanced monitoring of emissions from existing mines and other localized dust sources.”

In Broken Hill, emissions from mining and smelting are the primary source of exposure. Elevated blood lead levels among local children signal a public health crisis. The announcement “underscored a commitment to protect children and families from the long-term effects of lead exposure.”

The funding announcement follows a January 2026 report on reducing the health and environmental impacts of lead contamination in Broken Hill. The NSW Office of the Chief Scientist & Engineer (OCSE) issued the report. “A long history of lead mining in Broken Hill has left a legacy of widespread contamination and human exposure,” said Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, OCSE’s NSW Chief Scientist, in the report.

“While some progress has been made in reducing environmental lead levels and community exposure, improvements have slowed in recent years,” he added. “Delays in effective intervention risk irreversible impairment and potential lifelong complications across successive generations.”

NSW Minister for Health Ryan Park described the AU$37.3 million as an “investment” to “help reduce the risk of harm, particularly for young children and infants.” He added, “To see blood lead levels declining among young children screened in Broken Hill is very pleasing. Still, we know more needs to be done.”

Broken Hill is 1,100 kilometers west of Sydney, approximately a two-hour flight. According to 2020 data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), it has a population of fewer than 20,000, of whom 6 percent are aged 0-4 years. Broken Hill is the birthplace of the mining giant BHP and is built on the world’s largest deposit of lead, silver, and zinc. 

Lead mining began in 1885. The first inquiry by the NSW government into Broken Hill’s poisoning dates to the early 1890s. “Lead is a metal that has been mined in Broken Hill for many years,” stated Lead Smart Broken Hill, an NSW public health initiative and community education campaign.

“Lead dust is found in Broken Hill’s dust, soil, dirt, and rainwater tanks, among other places,” according to the Broken Hill Lead Surveillance Program 2023 Annual Report. “It is harmful to people of all ages, but the risk is highest for unborn babies, infants, and young children.”

Cate Faehrmann, an Australian environmentalist and politician, has long been a critic of the NSW government’s lead remediation measures. “Every year we get another report showing Broken Hill children are being poisoned by lead, and every year the government expresses concern,” she said. “It is a national shame that Aboriginal children in Broken Hill are still twice as likely to have dangerous levels of lead in their blood.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that “[l]ead exposure was attributed to more than 3.5 million deaths globally in 2023, primarily due to cardiovascular effects.” It also emphasized that “lead exposure can pose significant health risks for children. When children are exposed to very high levels of lead, it can cause serious damage to their brains and central nervous system, leading to symptoms such as coma, convulsions, and, in extreme cases, death.”

The primary concern is childhood neurodevelopment. Lead affects the central nervous system, kidneys, blood chemistry, and reproductive organs. It impacts children’s cognitive development, and the resulting cognitive impairment can persist into adulthood. The WHO said that lead exposure can also cause irreversible damage to children’s brain development, leading to increased antisocial tendencies and lower educational achievement. 

The 2023 Broken Hill Lead Surveillance Program Annual Report found that approximately 35 percent of non-Aboriginal children and a staggering 68 percent of Aboriginal children tested had blood lead levels exceeding the national public health guideline of 5 micrograms per deciliter.

“One in three Broken Hill kids under 5 have blood lead levels higher than the national guidelines,” said Faehrmann. 

Aboriginal children and families may face barriers to accessing remediation programs, healthcare, and nutritional interventions, further increasing exposure risks. “No child should have to suffer lifelong health impacts because governments won’t stand up to powerful mining interests,” she said.

At the announcement last July of the AU$37.3 million to address lead contamination, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said: “A long history of lead mining in Broken Hill has left a legacy of contamination that we need to manage better.”

However, the contamination is not merely a matter of better management. It is about neglect or “inaction,” as Richard Weston, chief executive of the Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation, put it. Maari Ma and the Broken Hill Environmental Lead Program monitor lead levels in Broken Hill’s air and soil. They also conduct blood lead tests on children under 5.

“There’s virtually zero interest from the NSW government in the health and well-being of Aboriginal children in Broken Hill,” Weston said. “It’s a waste of time, really.” He added that the funding did not address the inequalities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children.

Maari Ma withdrew from the Broken Hill Environmental Lead Response Group in November 2025 in protest against “the government’s inaction” and questioned why the NSW government has not adopted a targeted strategy to address Aboriginal contamination and structural injustices.

Weston sad that “structural inequities persist and contribute to lead exposure among Aboriginal children, and that targeted action is required because Aboriginal families have limited access to social housing and rely more on lower-quality private rental housing.” He added, “There’s a strong link between blood lead levels and the quality of housing in Broken Hill.”

Broken Hill faces an acute shortage of affordable housing. This unaffordability forces Aboriginal families to live in uninhabitable, lead-contaminated rental properties. These properties are contaminated by mining activities, exposing children to blood lead levels twice those of the general population. 

Weston noted that although lead remediation in homes is ongoing, the housing situation for Aboriginal people remains precarious, citing substandard housing, overcrowding, and unstable tenancies.

He has called for more social housing for Aboriginal people. He said that unless Aboriginal children have secure housing, they will continue to have elevated levels of lead in their bodies. “Aboriginal children in Broken Hill deserve clean homes, safe air, and a future free from the legacy of lead.”