Dozens of Pirlangimpi residents attend court-ordered Santos consultation on the Barossa gas project
Dozens of people attended Tuesday’s Santos consultation meeting at Pirlangimpi but there was an incentive to turn up.
Northern Territory
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Santos officials have been told that consultation around the Barossa gas project must be done on Tiwi Islander terms using anthropologists appointed by Traditional Owners.
About 80 paid attendees from the Pirlangimpi community on Melville Island took part in a consultation meeting at community sports club on Tuesday organised by Santos.
The meeting was one of three organised on the Tiwi Islands by Santos after the Federal Court last year ruled the company had not properly consulted prior to approvals being given.
The company began drilling in waters off the Tiwi Islands last year in line with federal government approvals but drilling stopped in October after the federal court decision.
Media were banned from attending the meeting but before commencement Tiwi Islands mayor Pirrawayingi Puruntatameri said he welcomed the opportunity for a full community consultation with Santos.
“The first meetings were with Traditional Owners, this is the first one with the whole community” he said.
Islanders who signed into the meeting will receive a $100 payment from a fee paid by Santos to Tiwi Resources.
Speaking after the meeting Traditional Owner Dennis Tipakalippa, who headed the original action against regulator NOPSEMA’s project approval, told this publication he was satisfied with Tuesday’s meeting and the way the process was followed.
“It was a good outcome,” he said.
“Hopefully we'll meet again in a couple of weeks time.
“I feel much better. With the right consultation they’re doing the right thing. Meeting the right people, have their say and go from there.”
Dominic Tipakalippa said the meeting was good.
“Let’s go ahead, get the young boys working,” he said.
Before the meeting, resident Donna Molominii said she wanted to know more about the project and its impact on the community.
“I really don’t know what to think of the project,” she said.
“That is why today I need to go and find out what Santos wants to do with a pipeline on our land and will it affect the sea. I don’t really know if it’s going to affect the animals.”
Margaret Tipungwuti said she was concerned the project would impact traditional food sources.
“I’m worried because it will kill our bush tucker and I don’t want that in my community so I want to go and listen,” she said.
“No, I don’t want that in my community.”
Brett Darley, Santos’ president upstream gas and liquids, told the meeting the company wanted to use the three consultation meetings to hear concerns of Tiwi Islanders.
Mr Darley said Covid-19 lockdowns had limited Santos’ capacity to visit the Tiwi Islands and it would use this and future consultations to brief residents about the project.
The project pipeline at its closest point will be about 7km off-shore from Melville Island and the processing plant about 140km north of Seagull Island on Melville Island’s north-west coast.
“What we’re trying to do is tell our story,” Mr Darley told the meeting.
“We want you to tell us your concerns. We want you to be comfortable with the way we’re managing the project.”
“This is the start of the process and we want to continue that in coming weeks and months.
“We’re trying to get history from you and we’re trying to understand what the cultural and spiritual issues are on your off-shore waters.”
Mr Darley said there would be no on-shore disruption to the Tiwis and the only visible impact would be night lights during pipe-line laying.
In occasionally passionate presentations, Pirlangimpi residents spoke of their concern at not being properly consulted with during previous Tiwi Islands projects.
“We want to use the anthropologists we choose,” one speaker said.
“We don’t like the way people treat us. We hear people say ‘I’m sorry we did this, we’re sorry we did that’.
“You do things our way, not your way. We’ve always done it the white man’s way. That’s got to change.”
Environmental advocate Antonia Burke, who also spoke at Monday’s meeting at Milikapiti, was critical of emissions that would come from the project.
Santos acknowledged the rig, like vehicles and boats used by Tiwi residents, was diesel powered.
Discovered in 2006, the Barossa gas field is 300km north of Darwin.
The project consists of floating production storage and floating facility supported by a hula-hoop size pipeline.
The FPSO will separate the natural gas and condensate with the dry gas transported via the pipeline for onshore processing at the Santos operated Darwin LNG facility.
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