Battle stations as Ben Wyatt pressed to intervene
The West Australian government will be asked to make an intervention to block the sale of a prized Kimberley cattle station to billionaire Andrew Forrest.
The West Australian government will be asked to make an extraordinary intervention on behalf of Aboriginal people of the Fitzroy River to block the sale of a prized Kimberley cattle station to billionaire Andrew Forrest and his wife Nicola.
The Australian has learned that Yanunijarra Aboriginal Corporation was on Sunday drafting a letter to the Minister for Lands and Aboriginal Affairs, Ben Wyatt, asking for a last-minute halt to the Forrests’ purchase of Jubilee Downs, which takes in Quanbun Station.
Anthony McLarty, a director of Yanunijarra Aboriginal Corporation, said the traditional owners would float an unprecedented arrangement in which they could buy the station instead of the Forrests by using a $25m contribution from The Nature Conservancy and up to $10m they say is due to them in Native Title compensation.
The dispute over the sale of the joint cattle properties became public last week when a consortium of traditional owners, an indigenous-owned cattle company and The Nature Conservancy revealed its $25m bid for the properties had been unsuccessful. The Forrests’ Tattarang bought the properties for a reported $30m.
“This is really not about Andrew Forrest. This is about justice for our people … this is about our future,” Mr McLarty said,
The Australian understands the Forrests’ successful bid for the stations was not the highest.
Mr Forrest told The Australian on Sunday that his bid was considered not just on price, but on factors including his capacity to look after the cattle and the environment. “There was a range of criteria: environmental care for the land, care for the country, cattle,” he said.
Mr Forrest, an iron ore magnate, grew up on a cattle station in the Pilbara called Minderoo. He runs cattle on that station, which is further south in the Pilbara. He said the Kimberley property was good cattle breeding country while Minderoo was good for fattening cattle.
“These two properties can work in partnership,” he said.
Mr Forrest is a great, great nephew of pioneering explorers Alexander Forrest and his brother John Forrest, WA’s first premier. Alexander Forrest’s 1893 speech to state parliament, in which he called for native troopers in the Kimberley, is sometimes quoted as proof of the deep conflict between hill tribes and non-indigenous pastoralists in the north at the time.
The brothers’ own relationship with Aboriginal trackers Tommy Windich and Tommy Pierre has been described as respectful and like family. The brothers insisted they were photographed with them, and John named Windich and Pierre springs after them.
Mr McLarty said it saddened him that his people did not own any of the pastoral stations on their traditional lands, particularly because so many of their grandparents and great grandparents worked hard to help the Kimberley cattle industry succeed. He said Yi-martuwarra Native Title holders would formally ask Mr Wyatt to intervene on the transfer approval for the stations, effectively giving the indigenous-led consortium another shot at buying the properties.
Mr Forrest has a long record of training indigenous people into jobs. He and his wife have said that they are looking forward to working with and for the Yi-martuwarra people
The traditional owners made their bid for Jubliee Downs and Quanbun Station with the Kimberley Agricultural and Pastoral Company, the biggest indigenous-owned cattle company in the north of WA. Called KAPCO for short, the indigenous cattle company already owns four stations in the Kimberley — Myroodah, Leopold Downs, Mt Anderson and Bohemia Downs. It employs up to 60 people depending on the season and no fewer than 65 per cent of its workers are indigenous.
KAPCO director Robert Watson said the company aimed to help traditional owners take ownership of an industry their ancestors helped to build.
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