The Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation (YNAC), representing traditional owners in Western Australia’s Pilbara, has voted to appeal a Federal Court ruling ordering Fortescue to pay A$150.3 million for cultural loss. The court found Fortescue liable after it built four iron ore projects without an agreement with YNAC. YNAC had originally sought A$1.8 billion, citing industry royalty rates. Fortescue’s Solomon Hub has generated an estimated $80 billion in revenue since starting production in 2013.

Tasmania is facing renewed concern that the closure of major industrial users could push up household power bills, with Bell Bay Aluminium seen as a key risk. Bell Bay Aluminium is estimated to pay A$25 million a year in network charges and about A$100 million in energy costs. If the smelter shut, average bills could rise by 2% and TasNetworks could trigger an additional A$120 million investment in the George Town substation. The company is an aluminium smelter, and any shutdown would directly reshape local supply capacity and industrial electricity demand.

Australia’s communications regulator, ACMA, said it will sue Optus in the Federal Court over a nationwide network outage in September that lasted almost 14 hours. ACMA alleges Optus breached two legal obligations more than 1,000 times, with a maximum penalty of $250,000 per contravention. The outage saw 75% of Triple Zero calls fail from 605 attempts and was linked to two deaths. A review commissioned by Optus found a routine network upgrade involved multiple failures by Optus and contractor Nokia, including as many as 10 crucial mistakes.

Australia’s corporate regulator has alleged Capital Guard raised $17.4 million from about 80 investors by selling bonds that did not exist. Investigators said $9 million was transferred to crypto platforms and another $4.1 million to currency exchanges, with much of the money unaccounted for. The New South Wales Supreme Court has approved the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s application to wind up the firm after the regulator’s investigation.

Origin Energy has confirmed a data security incident in which the personal information of about 900,000 current and former customers is believed to have been accessed. The company said it became aware of a potential threat in early July and that new information on 22 July indicated a possible security incident. Origin said affected customers will be contacted and its investigation is ongoing.

Australia’s corporate regulator has warned that risks are building in the country’s A$250 billion private credit market, with concentrations in property development and technology-related lending. The sector has expanded by more than six-fold over the past decade and is widely held through superannuation fund allocations. Strains seen at groups such as US private credit firm Blue Owl, including redemption limits and write-downs, have sharpened concerns about broader systemic risks in global private credit.

Australia’s last manganese smelter, Liberty Bell Bay in Tasmania, will close immediately after a proposed sale collapsed this week. The plant entered voluntary administration in March and administrators said in May a consortium had agreed to acquire the business. One of the deal’s main financial backers withdrew last month and the transaction was ultimately abandoned. The smelter employs more than 200 workers, and its closure leaves Australia with no domestic manganese metal capacity.

The US reinstated a naval blockade on Iran and carried out airstrikes for a fourth consecutive night, raising concerns over shipping security through the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude futures jumped more than 10% on the day and climbed as high as $US85.72 a barrel intraday. The move was treated as a tangible supply shock rather than routine geopolitical noise, triggering an immediate repricing across energy markets.

About 400 workers at BHP’s Port Hedland operations in Australia are set to hold an eight-hour strike next Thursday, marking Western Australia’s biggest mining-sector industrial action in 25 years. The stoppage follows a breakdown in wage and working-conditions talks. The dispute could put about $120 million a day of BHP revenue and $6.85m in royalty payments to the Western Australian government at risk. Port Hedland, the world’s largest iron ore export facility, is seen as a key link in the iron ore supply chain.