Aboriginal native title holders have won more than $54 million in compensation for cultural and economic loss caused by a mine in the Northern Territory.
The Federal Court found on Friday the NT government was liable for damage caused by the McArthur River Mine near Borroloola in the Gulf of Carpentaria, which is run by multinational resources giant Glencore.
The Gudanji, Yanyuwa and Yanyuwa-Marra peoples launched legal action in 2020, saying the establishment and 2007 expansion of the open-cut mine, including the diversion of the McArthur River which was allowed by the then-Labor government, caused significant cultural, spiritual, economic and environmental damage.
Justice Katrina Banks-Smith said in her judgement the effects of the mining operations were “intergenerational and enduring”, and her assessment of cultural losses was made in regards to “irreversible” spiritual damage, ABC News reported.
She found both the river diversion and the mine development had irreversibly disturbed “dreaming sites and routes”, and that the claimants were unable to prevent the disturbances or protect the sites.
“This diminution of traditional connection to country, to receive from country and to take care of country is compensable loss,” Justice Banks Smith said.
“By the compensable acts, an open-cut mine and a port have been developed on the claim group’s country, with resulting and ongoing cultural loss. In the end, that is no small thing.”
She awarded $54 million for cultural and non-economic losses, and $743,408 for economic loss, plus interest, a far higher amount than a similar native title loss ruling in 2019 where claimants in Timber Creek received $2.5 million, but less than the $225 million the Gudanji, Yanyuwa and Yanyuwa-Marra had argued for.
Gudanji claimant Chris Pluto welcomed the judgement, but said the fight against the mine was not over.
“It made me feel good that the judge recognised the damage that’s happened to our country because of this mine,” he said outside court.
“But we’ve still gotta keep fighting. At the end of the day, we want our country back. The damage will keep happening if we don’t get it back.”
In August last year the mine signed a Cultural Heritage Management Agreement with the Gudanji Yanyuwa Garrwa Marra Aboriginal Corporation requiring Glencore to involve the aboriginal group in decision-making.
Header image: The claimants outside court (Northern Land Council).
