PM Transcripts

l,, AUSTRALIA'
PRIME MINISTER
FOR-MEDIA 7 March 1986
JOINT STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER AND THE PREMIER. OF
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
The Commonwealth and Western Australian Government have agreed on
new arrangements for completing the search for unexploded
ordnance ( UXO) in the Warnbro area, south of Fremantle.
Details were announced today by the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, and
the West Australian Premier, Mr Burke.
Mr Burke welcomed the arrangements as a sensible cooperative
measure. Land in the Warnbro area was used in World war II as an artillery
range by the Army.
The Commonwealth has funded searches for UXO in the area since
1980, he said.
As well as taking account of the growing pressures for further
development of the Warnbro area, the new arrangements will enable
the orderly and uninterrupted completion of the searching
operations. Mr Hawke said that under the new arrangements the Commonwealth
will fund the search of a minimum area of 394 hectares at an
estimated cost of $ 940,000.
Depending on the rate at which UXO is found during the searches,
the Commonwealth will fund further searches up to a maximum area
of 848 hectares in the Warnbro area, bringing the total project
cost to around $ 2 million, he said.
Mr Hawke said after the searches were completed in accordance
with these arrangements, the Commonwealth will respond. as
necessary to any subsequent UXO finds on the same basis as that
applying elsewhere in Australia.