A key expert used by the Environmental Defenders Office in its failed attempt to block a $5.8 billion gas project off the coast of Darwin for cultural reasons described himself as “just a white fella” and told a campaigner he could move the location of a sensitive Indigenous site.

The EDO lost a legal bid to block the Barossa gas pipeline project after the Federal Court decided in January that the climate-focused legal service had presented confected evidence and coached Indigenous witnesses. The project is being built by ASX-listed oil and gas giant Santos.