‘Sacred sites to be drained of life’, say Central Australia traditional owners

Traditional owners fear dozens of sacred sites could be damaged by a vast groundwater licence handed to a company with alleged links to China.

Central Land Council chief executive Lesley Turner. Picture: John Feder

Traditional owners in Central Australia fear dozens of their ­sacred sites and Dreaming stories could be damaged by a vast groundwater licence handed to an agriculture company with alleged links to the Chinese government.

The Central Land Council on Thursday accused the China-friendly Northern Territory Labor administration of granting the ­licence “on guesswork” and of fast-tracking developer-friendly water reforms while paying “only lip service” to traditional owners. More than 80 residents spent much of June working with an ­independent anthropologist to identify 29 groundwater-dependent sacred sites and Dreaming tracks that they say are potentially endangered by the licence.

CLC boss Lesley Turner said his organisation commissioned the survey after the Territory ­“failed to carry out a baseline ­assessment of cultural values on which the company would base its so-called adaptive management plan”.

“The decision to grant the ­licence (was) not based on solid scientific data but on mere guesswork, and if the modelling turns out to be even slightly wrong, those sites are in mortal danger,” he said. “We had absolutely no confidence that this critically important survey work would be done in time and to a rigorous standard because the government is clearly only paying lip service to the rights and interests of remote community residents and traditional owners.”

The licence was awarded to Fortune Agribusiness earlier this year and allows the company to take about 17 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water annually from aquifers in the desert region around Tennant Creek.

Fortune is part-owned by Melbourne-based Chinese-language media mogul Tommy Jiang, also known as Jiang Zhao Quing. Mr Jiang has been linked to fundraising efforts on behalf of political leaders and to Victoria’s attempts to join the Belt and Road Initiative. An Australian Strategic Policy Institute report about Chinese ­influence tied him to the United Front Work Department, an arm of the Chinese Communist Party.

Fortune will not have to pay for the water it uses, which the government has justified by arguing the company will instead create jobs and help develop the economy. The horticulture project intends to create a $180m export market for Central Australia and would create an estimated 110 full-time jobs and 1350 seasonal jobs.

Fortune chairman Peter Wood called the CLC’s remarks “fairly inflammatory” and said his firm would be careful not to damage any sacred sites registered with the Territory’s Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority.

“If the traditional owners have, quite recently, identified more sites within our area that are ­sacred, they should talk to us,” he said. “I’ve got no reason to suspect that they are trying to identify sites we don’t know about. My view is that they don’t understand (our management and monitoring regime).”

The vast majority of the company’s bores would be far from registered sacred sites, which would be monitored for early signs of problems.

Traditional owner Michael Jones said there were many Dreamingtracks around the area, which is not far from the Devils Marbles. “All these places will be affected if there is no water,” he said.

Water Security Minister Eva Lawler said the NT Water ­Controller’s grant of Fortune’s licence was one step in a lengthy series of approvals for Fortune’s project. “The Territory government is ­developing a long-term, comprehensive Strategic Water Plan that will assess all policy options for ­demand and supply-side management,” she said.

“Water is a critical issue for the Territory’s future, and Territorians will have the opportunity to have their views heard.”

The CLC has demanded the government withdraw draft water reform legislation.