’Disgrace’: Indigenous elder helps block $1 billion gold mine in regional NSW
Aboriginal leaders have erupted after a little-known elder helped block a $1b gold mine from going ahead in NSW. The project would have created almost 1000 jobs.
Aboriginal leaders have erupted with fury after a little-known elder speaking on behalf of the spirits of her “ancestors” helped block a $1 billion gold mine from going ahead in regional NSW.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek made the controversial decision last week to veto the proposed site of a tailings dam using a rare protection order under the indigenous heritage laws.
Her ruling came after a submission from Wiradjuri elder Aunty Nyree Reynolds, an artist who argued “all water is sacred” and claimed “the ancestors are saying they’ll be happy”.
Ms Plibersek insisted the decision to protect part of the headwaters of the Belubula River – where the dam would have gone – would not impact the development of the mine itself.
But as a result, Perth-based Regis Resources said it was no longer financially viable to continue the McPhillamys gold project near the tiny farming town of Blayney, wedged between Orange and Bathurst in the state’s west.
It will instead write off $192 million of value and look for a new site, enraging Indigenous elders who say the project would have brought 580 construction jobs and 290 operational jobs to the region.
Now, questions have been raised about why Ms Plibersek overlooked the written advice of the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council, which has legal cultural authority over the area and found the dam would not have impacted any sites of cultural significance.
Roy Ah-See, a respected Wiradjiru leader and former chair of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, said the decision made a “mockery of our people’s culture”.
“We’ve never heard of this lady,” Mr Ah-See told Ben Fordham on 2GB radio.
“This makes a mockery of my people, my old people that fought for rights in this country.”
Mr Ah-see said he was concerned the federal government was “listening to the wrong people” and argued the mine would have provided “economic empowerment for us as Aboriginal people”.
He said there was a stringent process that determined who could join Aboriginal land councils and argued it was “dangerous” that “others outside of the system can stop programs”.
“What chance has our local Aboriginal land council got to utilise our land?” he asked.
“We own 40 per cent of the country but we’re broke.”
Speaking to The Australian, Mr Ah-See said environmentalists were more concerned about protecting Aboriginal land than providing financial hope and stability for Indigenous communities.
“The green attitude is that all our land should be locked up for environmental national parks and that wasn’t the intent of the NSW land rights legislation,“ the Wiradjuri leader said.
“The environmental view is that Aboriginal people should be environmentalists, that’s not true. That shoe doesn’t fit. We are balanced. It is about economic empowerment for us.
“We want to create economic opportunities for the future generations and we are not going to do that by locking up our land and using them as environmental corridors or offsets for other developers. That’s crazy.”
Who is Nyree Reynolds?
Nyree Reynolds is an artist who describes herself as being a “very light skinned descendant” of a Wiradjuri woman “born in the 1820s”.
Ms Reynolds lodged an application objecting to the dam in 2021 under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act on behalf of Wiradjuri elders.
It’s understood the application was made with the support of the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation (WTOCWAC).
“I thought if I can do work with everyone and the ancestors to stop this ... because to kill the Belabula (river) by putting cement in the springs was unthinkable,” Reynold said in an interview provided to Guardian Australia by the federal environment department.
“So long (it’s been here), this little river – it’s only tiny but it’s our river.
“Many Dreaming stories follow its path and no one has the right to destroy this,” she added in the submission.
“No one… This river sustains life. It will not sustain life if the headwaters are poisoned... The Ancestors who are leaving will turn around and come back should this land be saved from the ravages of mining.”
Ms Reynolds celebrated the victory with a gathering of Wiradjuri locals last week.
“We knew that place was special because our old people have been talking about the Belubula for a long time,” she said.
“It’s a sacred songline … more than often, we get told our knowledge isn’t traditional enough, and we make things up.
“But we’ve been told [by our ancestors] to always stay on our songline, and talk straight, and tell the truth.
“And we did that, and we did that for Country, and we did it for our mob that come from south: my father’s people, my father’s Country.
“So there, that place will always be protected, and the waterways, and the sacred springs.”
She said she hoped “one day these mining companies” might “wake up” to the fact that “all water is sacred”.
“But for now… I just hope that our ancestors, and our old people, are proud of all of us.”
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Backlash over controversial decision
Blayney Mayor Scott Ferguson acknowledged there were some people in the town who were opposed to the mine, but said the ruling would hurt the community deeply.
“There’s certainly plenty of people that are very disappointed that we probably won’t see a billion dollar investment in the region that was going to bring hundreds and hundreds of jobs,” Cr Ferguson said, according to the ABC.
The mayor said the axed mine could cost the council up to $30 million across the next 15 years.
Opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price described the veto as a “serious threat to economic development for Indigenous Australians”.
“(Ms Plibersek) promised the Australian people she would make better laws around, Aboriginal heritage in this country,” she told Sky News Australia.
Ms Price called for a “review” of land title law.
“How can we be terribly sure what places are culturally significant and what places aren’t culturally significant?,” she asked.
“For the purposes of putting in an end to projects like this one they seem to suddenly pop up as culturally significant places.
“I mean, from what I’m hearing from those that I know, Wiradjuri people that I know is there’s a lot of politicking going on and power struggles going on behind the scenes.”
Indigenous advocate Warren Mundine echoed Ms Price.
“People out in regions are suffering without any jobs, without any prospects of a future and that, and here they are, saying, ‘oh look, we’re going to ignore the Aboriginal people out there’,” he said on Sky News.
“What happened to Albo saying ‘we’re going to listen to a Voice of Aboriginal people?’
“Where’s the transparency in all this whole thing? You know, this is a disgrace. It is treating Aboriginal people with contempt.”
The Mineral Councils of Australia (MCA) said it was “disappointed” by the decision.
“In 2022 alone, Australian mining engaged 488 Indigenous businesses, spending $949 million, and directly employed 5,210 Indigenous people – representing approximately 6 per cent of our total workforce,” the council said in a statement.
“These are highly skilled, well-paid jobs that contribute directly to the Government’s Closing the Gap outcomes.
“It is vital that the government provides transparency around the decision-making process.
“Federal interventions that override state level decisions and dismiss the input of local Aboriginal representatives risk setting a dangerous precedent.”
Tanya Plibersek’s reasoning for vetoing the dam
In a statement confirming the decision last week - which has been shrouded in secrecy - Ms Plibersek said the headwaters of the Belubula River were of spiritual and cultural significance to the Wiradjuri people.
“They have featured in many traditions practised for generations, including by Aboriginal people transitioning from youth to young adulthood,” she said.
“Some of these traditions have been disclosed to me privately and must remain confidential due to their cultural sensitivity. If this site were to be desecrated, it would be a threat to the continuance of Wiradjuri/Wiradyuri culture.
“Because I accept that the headwaters of the Belubula River are of particular significance to the Wiradjuri/Wiradyuri people in accordance with their tradition, I have decided to protect them.”.
Ms Plibersek has refused to release crucial documents which based her decision to shut down the dam proposal.
“No, it’s not traditional to release all of the advice publicly. That is absolutely standard with any of these decisions,” she told the Daily Telegraph.
“Some of that advice is provided confidentially, and that includes information that is commercial in confidence from project proponents.”
Ms Plibersek said she had gone through 2500 pages of submissions before making her decision.
Gold mine ‘not viable’
Regis Resources rejected Ms Plibersek’s insistence that the decision “will not stop the mine”, revealing the project was “not viable”.
“Regis is extremely surprised and disappointed that, after a nearly four-year, protracted Section 10 assessment process, Minister Plibersek has concluded there are grounds to block the development of the McPhillamys Gold project,” CEO Jim Beyer said.
“(This) declaration shatters any confidence that development proponents Australia-wide can have in project approval timelines and outcomes..
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