Mining giant Rio Tinto is funding a £14.5m 'kill zone' to stop poisonous cane toads invading Australia's Pilbara

The A$28m (£14.5m) project will build a 7,500-sq-km 'toad containment zone' across six pastoral stations south of Broome, cutting off the artificial water points the invasive amphibians rely on to survive the dry season. The barrier aims to halt a slow westward march that has already killed millions of native Australian animals, including snakes, goannas and crocodiles. Rio Tinto and its Rhodes Ridge Joint Venture partners are splitting the five-year funding equally, with work set to begin in 2027.

Cane toads were introduced to Queensland in 1935 to control sugar-cane beetles and have been advancing west ever since, now sitting roughly 100km from Broome.

Curtin University professor Ben Phillips warned the toads are 'on track to reach the Pilbara within two decades — unless we act now', threatening species found nowhere else on Earth.

The project targets the environment rather than the animal: 685 water infrastructure items will be modified to create a dry corridor the moisture-dependent toads cannot cross.