An introduction to Yurlu | Country
This introduction to Yurlu | Country (Melhem 2025) was given by Films at the Bundy member Greg Tomamichel at our screening in July 2026. Our audience gave this film 4.7 stars.
Released in 2025, Yurlu | Country is directed by Yaara Bou Melhem, an Australian writer, director and producer with a focus on social justice documentaries. The co-writer and executive producer Maitland Parker is also the focus of the documentary. He is a Banjima Elder, suffering from mesothelioma arising from the asbestos mine at Wittenoom.
The film has received several awards, including Best Feature Documentary at the Australian International Documentary Conference, and Vision for Human Rights Award at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) in Geneva, Switzerland. The film has also won an award for its sound design, and I think you’ll appreciate how much of an impact the audio has on your listening experience.
I mentioned at one of our film chats that I had visited Wittenoom, and so I was asked to give this introduction. So, from a personal perspective, Cindy and I met whilst working in the mining industry. I worked for a while at BHP Area C (shown in the movie) and I actually stayed a night in Wittenoom in 1996, when I was a younger and sillier man. Working in mining, we got to see the benefits that arose in providing materials needed to make things. But we also saw up close the environmental damage that occurs as a result. And whilst environmental management of mining now is still far from perfect, it was certainly not good in the era of Wittenoom's asbestos mine.
Wittenoom operated from the early 1940s to 1966, when health concerns and failing finances of the mine brought about its closure. Efforts were made over the years to close down the town, and the final residents remained until 2021. You will see the footprint of the town, now erased from maps, in the film. You’ll also see archive footage of it in its heyday.
A huge contaminated area remains where mine tailings were dumped during mining operations. Tailings are the materials left over after the asbestos is separated from the other rock that it was contained in. Unfortunately the tailings at Wittenoom still contain some asbestos, so the health risk remains so long as the tailings are there. As is pointed out in the film, this is the largest contaminated site in the southern hemisphere - and it continues to spread, carried on wind and water.
My thoughts coming away from Yurlu | Country:
The film makes use of strong contrasts. The ancient landscape and culture sits alongside very modern technologies and politics, but the film also quietly contrasts people and their backgrounds.
There is amazing use of drone footage and sound to heighten the impact of the story being told. Drones give a perspective that would be hard to get in any other way (and using aircraft or huge cranes would certainly be beyond the budget of many filmmakers).
My most vivid takeaway from the film is of the stoic dignity of individuals.I found the scene between Maitland (and his family) and the doctor to be particularly moving in how respectful, emotional and yet understated it was.
Further reading
Clean Up Wittenoom campaign website
Banjima Native Title Aboriginal Corporation website
Interview: Yaara Bou Melhem - Matthew Eeles, Cinema Australia, 28 May 2025
Yurlu | Country: A legacy film of Banjima Elder and staunch fighter for health of his Country, Maitland Parker - Jarred Cross, National Indigenous Times, 22 August 2025
Yurlu | Country director Yaara Bou Melhem on honouring the legacy of Maitland Parker and the grace that resides in her essential documentary (podcast) - Andrew F Peirce, The Curb, 6 November 2025