2024 Walkley Documentary Award

How to Poison a Planet exposes one of the largest environmental disasters in human history, a crisis caused by PFAS chemicals. These toxic man-made chemicals don’t fully break down naturally in the environment.

The project began more than four years ago when the team travelled to the Aboriginal community of Wreck Bay near Jervis Bay, chasing a lead on a community contamination stemming from poor management of firefighting foam on a neighbouring Defence airbase. They spent years travelling back and forth to Wreck Bay to earn the trust of community members. First Nations producer Mat Cornwell’s role in the team was critical. The team also spent three days trawling through documents obtained through freedom of information to track the history of the Defence’s PFAS use in Australia, specifically Wreck Bay.

The team gained exclusive access to the US legal team taking on industrial giant 3M, which manufactured PFAS chemicals, on behalf of hundreds of communities affected by contamination like Wreck Bay. The filmmakers trawled through hundreds of documents and deposition transcripts spanning three decades, revealing that 3M had known for decades that PFAS chemicals were toxic and getting into people’s blood.

How to Poison a Planet is an iKandy Films production directed and produced by Katrina McGowan, and produced by Janine Hosking and Mat Cornwell in collaboration with The Sydney Morning Herald journalist Carrie Fellner. The film was commissioned by streaming platform Stan as part of its Revealed documentary strand.