Land handed back, hectare by hectare

By late 2024 the sector had matured enough to produce the thing any industry produces: numbers you can audit.

Most of the reduction came from survey rather than clearance, and that is worth explaining because it sounds like a technicality. When contamination is first estimated, the suspected hazardous area is drawn generously, because nobody knows yet. Non-technical survey — interviewing residents, mapping incidents, examining records — shrinks that estimate dramatically before a single detector is switched on. Only what survives the survey needs physical clearance, which is slow and expensive.

What release actually means

A documented handover: this defined parcel, surveyed and cleared to a stated standard, verified by quality assurance, returned to its owner with paperwork. That paperwork matters. A farmer will not put a tractor on land, and a bank will not lend against it, on a verbal assurance.

Every parcel released is a farm that can plant, a road crew that can work, and a family that can go home. It is the least visible part of reconstruction and it precedes all the rest.