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Does This Australian Town Really Have the World’s Lowest Life Expectancy at 37 Years

Does This Australian Town Really Have the World’s Lowest Life Expectancy at 37 Years
The outback town of Wilcannia, Australia, on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008. AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Nicole James
Nicole James
9/5/2023|Updated: 9/5/2023
0:00

Where is the world’s lowest life expectancy? Not in Africa but in Wilcannia—the canary in the coal mine for Australia’s managed decline.

This once thriving town in northwest New South Wales has been described by Josephine Cashman, an Indigenous Australian lawyer, as a community in a continual state of mourning with unsafe water and decades of broken promises.

Nicole James
Nicole James
Author
Nicole James is a freelance journalist for The Epoch Times based in Australia. She is an award-winning short story writer, journalist, columnist, and editor. Her work has appeared in newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Sun-Herald, The Australian, the Sunday Times, and the Sunday Telegraph. She holds a BA Communications majoring in journalism and two post graduate degrees, one in creative writing.
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