Banjawarn Station is a remote cattle station in Western Australia, that previously operated as a sheep station. In the 1990s the lease to Banjawarn was owned by the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, and following the Tokyo subway attack was the subject of an Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation. Banjawarn is one of the 70 largest stations in Australia.
Description
It is situated 350 km (220 miles) north of Kalgoorlie and 800 km (500 miles) north east of Perth, on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert in the community of Leonora. It covers an area of .
The land is a mix of Wanderrie, mulga, saltbush and grasslands that support both annual and perennial grasses. Gum trees and mulga follow the four main creeks and other watercourses. Several waterholes and lake systems are also found on the property.
In 1928, Banjawarn was owned by the Warren brothers and was supporting a flock of 1,000 sheep.
It was owned for a year in 1993 by the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo cult. In 2010, the leasees were Colvin and Adele Day. The property was carrying a herd of about 2,500 head of Droughtmaster, shorthorn and Brahman cattle.
Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese doomsday cult responsible for a range of criminal and terrorist acts. In April 1993, when Kiyohide Hayakawa, deputy leader of the Aum, arrived in Western Australia, Aum Shinrikyo purchased Banjawarn and built a facility there. Hayakawa had come in search of areas suitable for uranium mining. In his notes, he also praised the high quality of uranium ore, although it referred to the state of South Australia, not to Banjawarn.
In September 1993, a team of Aum scientists arrived in Australia with mislabelled hydrochloric acid among other chemicals.
The Aum group traveled with chemicals and mining equipment on which they paid over $20,000 in excess baggage fees. According to the Australian Federal Police report, among the baggage was a mechanical ditch digger, picks, petrol generators, gas masks, respirators, and shovels. A customs duty of over $15,000 was paid to import these items. Because of the large amount of excess baggage being brought in by the group, Australian Customs searched the entire group. This search revealed four litres of concentrated hydrochloric acid, including some in containers marked as hand soap. Among the other chemicals that Australian customs officials found were ammonium chloride, sodium sulphate, perchloric acid, and aqueous ammonia. All of the chemicals and some of the laboratory equipment were seized by Australian authorities. was unlikely, as it was 170 times more powerful than the largest mining explosion known in Australia up to that time.
Following the revelation that Banjawarn was owned by the Aum, there was also speculation in 1997 that this event might have been the result of a test explosion of a nuclear device they had built. The event was determined to have had the strength of "a small nuclear explosion, perhaps equal to up to 2,000 tons of high explosives".
IRIS investigation
Australian geologist Harry Mason started investigating the event in early 1995, in relation to the damage the event caused to the Alicia Mine, a gold mine in the Leonora-Laverton area. The fireball and the seismic event initially went relatively unnoticed by the news media, except for an article in the Kalgoorlie Miner newspaper, on 1 June 1993. Mason conducted in-person and phone interviews with numerous witnesses to compile a report. According to a New York Times article, it was Mason who brought the seismic event to the attention of the United States Senate investigators.
Mason remained convinced that at least some of the observed phenomena were caused by an undeclared test by the Laverton Jindalee Operational Radar Network facility. Those claims of Mason were often viewed sceptically. holding a doctorate in astrophysics), while Hayakawa (No. 2) had arrived earlier that month.