The 2019 Peter Rawlinson environment award through the Australian Conservation Foundation was awarded to Shirley and Elizabeth Wonyabong and Vicki Abdullah for the 40 years of dedicated campaigning to protect country and culture from uranium mining.

Over four decades Shirley Wonyabong, Elizabeth Wonyabong and Vicki Abdullah have stood against relentless pressure from mining companies, including BHP and now Cameco. Their life’s work has been to protect country and nature, and to inspire their community and others to stand strong too. In 2017-2019 these women stood in the highest court of WA to challenge the environmental approval of the Yeelirrie uranium mine which the WA EPA and the WA Appeals convener determined would likely causer the extinction of multiple species.

“We won’t give up, our country is too important. We will continue to fight for Yeeliree and to change the laws,” they said after their case was dismissed.