The traditional owners of Darwin say a “priceless” part of Indigenous history is at risk from the proposed Middle Arm industrial precinct, which is a “stone’s throw” from the city’s only known remaining Indigenous rock art.
They say if the project on Darwin harbour proceeds there is a real risk of “another Juukan Gorge-style scenario” – where in 2020 Rio Tinto blew up ancient rock shelters that showed human occupancy dating back 46,000 years.
Both the Northern Territory and federal governments have failed their own protocols for cultural consultation on the project, traditional owners claim.
“[This is] pretty much the only Larrakia rock art to have survived colonisation,” Nigel Browne, the chief executive of the Larrakia Development Corporation, told Guardian Australia. “For our mob it’s priceless and for everyone it should be considered a priceless part of our history.”
Advocates have expressed disbelief that in the wake of the Juukan Gorge inquiry, which found deficiencies in cultural heritage protection across Australia, the Larrakia people of Darwin have not been adequately consulted on the development.
The NT government said it was committed to working closely with the Larrakia community and that engagement with Larrakia organisations was ongoing.
‘We haven’t been spoken to’
Middle Arm will be a major manufacturing hub for gas, petrochemicals, hydrogen and minerals, designed in part to facilitate a massive expansion of the gas sector in the NT. The Albanese government has allocated $1.5bn to the project for the construction of new port infrastructure.
Both NT and federal government planning guidelines advise early engagement with First Nations people about development proposals on their country but senior Larrakia people say that has not happened on Middle Arm.
“The process for consultation should have commenced before the project was announced and it should have ensured consultation with all Larrakia family groups,” Browne said. There are nine Larrakia family groups across Darwin.
Sources told Guardian Australia the NT government used a non-Indigenous consultancy firm to conduct cultural surveys of the area and waited two years after announcing the project before proposing a Larrakia advisory group. The proposed group was to be chaired by a bureaucrat in the NT government with only three Larrakia members.
Browne was one of the proposed group’s members and said it had only met once informally in October last year, and its terms of reference had not been finalised.
He said the Larrakia members had asked the government for fresh cultural surveys led by Larrakia people. “This is just the process that needs to be done, it’s the bare minimum,” he said.
“They wanted to call it the Larrakia advisory committee, which went down like a lead balloon because if you call it that it really suggests it’s a Larrakia-led process and [that] we support it – and none of those things at this stage can be said.”
A leaked draft of a report commissioned by the NT government about the social impacts of the project also states it was unable to make findings about the development’s potential cultural impacts because of inadequate consultation with Larrakia and Tiwi people.
Senior Larrakia people said the industrial development could cause irreversible harm to cultural artefacts at Middle Arm as well as to stories, dreaming and rituals.
“We do not want to see this hub, whatever you want to call it, go ahead,” said Larrakia elder Bill Risk, who spoke on behalf of three Larrakia families. “We do not want to see the industrialisation of Middle Arm.”
Risk was the lead claimant in the unsuccessful Larrakia native title claim over Darwin city that went to the high court in 2008.
“You want to talk about free, prior and informed consent? There isn’t any,” he said.
“We haven’t been spoken to. We would say quite clearly we do not want it. They haven’t reached out. They haven’t spoken to us.”
A ‘sustainable development precinct’
Middle Arm is in the middle of Darwin harbour near two existing liquefied natural gas export facilities run by Inpex and Santos.
The NT government wants to develop the site into what it and the federal government describe as a “sustainable development precinct”. An environmental impact statement is due to be exhibited this year. The Albanese government is taking an equity stake in the project.
Plans show the project would house new gas, blue and green hydrogen and minerals facilities, and carbon capture and storage. Its construction would require clearing of woodlands, endangered species habitat and mangroves and the dredging of the harbour to install concrete wharves.
Middle Arm contains sacred sites and archaeological features including middens, which are distinct concentrations of mostly shells that are evidence of past Aboriginal hunting, gathering and ceremony. Guardian Australia visited the area as part of an investigation into the impacts of the gas expansion in the NT and was shown middens and an island close to Middle Arm associated with the Larrakia kangaroo dreaming.
The Guardian was also given permission to visit petroglyphs, which are the only known Aboriginal rock art within the Darwin region and are located within 1km of the proposed development footprint.
“It’s a stone’s throw away,” Browne said.
He said that although the rock art sat outside the current development boundary, he was concerned that boundary could change. People were also worried about potential damage from decreased air quality, he said, including from toxic particulate emissions and increased traffic in the area.
While Larrakia people do not hold native title rights over the Darwin peninsula, developers still have obligations to engage with traditional owners about cultural heritage and cultural values under environmental assessment legislation and cultural and sacred sites legislation. They are also obliged to consider cultural heritage as part of the assessment for commonwealth funding for infrastructure projects.
Kirsty Howey, the executive director of the Environment Centre NT, said the territory and federal governments had fallen “far short” of their own standards.
She said the proposed development was of an unprecedented scale for Darwin harbour and Larrakia people should have been consulted at the earliest opportunity. Instead, she said, they had been “treated as an afterthought”.
“The Australian government committed $1.5bn to this development in 2022 without a cultural heritage assessment as required by Infrastructure Australia’s own assessment framework, or even bothering to speak to Larrakia people about the project,” Howey said.
“How this can have occurred for a government project in 2023, with the devastating findings of the Juukan Gorge inquiry ringing in Australia’s collective ears, simply beggars belief.”
Howey said both governments needed to put the assessment on hold and consult Larrakia people thoroughly before any further steps were taken.
Traditional sites, marine life and dreaming
Eric Fejo, a Larrakia elder, said the federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, “must not allow this project to proceed”.
“There is a real risk of another Juukan Gorge-style scenario if the Middle Arm project proceeds any further,” Fejo said, noting that he also had not been consulted. “It’s a bloody nightmare … It needs to go back to the drawing board.”
A Larrakia woman, Lorraine Williams, said she was concerned about the effects the development would have on the harbour, its marine life and traditional sites used by Larrakia people for camping and fishing. She and Risk were also concerned about any project that encroached on the kangaroo dreaming, which was maintained by water and tidal movements.
“Because we didn’t win our native title we don’t have a say in anything,” Williams said. “We don’t get to have a say but we get to watch the total annihilation and destruction of our country.
“It’s like it’s chopping off our hand, chopping off our arm, just taking all the little bits and pieces of us.”
A spokesperson for the NT government said it would take a “collaborative approach with community, cultural groups, and industry through the life of the project”.
The government was committed to working closely with the Larrakia community, the spokesperson said. This included “a proposed cultural consultative committee to seek knowledge and understanding of the cultural and social values associated with the Middle Arm peninsula and Darwin Harbour more broadly, as well as economic opportunities associated with the precinct”.
“Engagement with Larrakia organisations is ongoing and it is envisaged the cultural consultative committee could provide on-country consideration of the cultural and heritage values at Middle Arm.”
The federal government did not respond to specific questions but said the project was only in its early stages. It directed questions about cultural heritage and sacred sites to the NT government whose laws may consider cultural values not captured by federal law.
“Traditional Owners’ views and knowledge should be considered in all project planning and approvals, particularly on matters relating to cultural heritage,” a spokesperson for Plibersek said.
A spokesperson for the federal infrastructure minister, Catherine King, said the NT government had committed to working with the Larrakia community and other stakeholders on the development of the Middle Arm precinct.
“The Australian Government understands that engagement with the Larrakia community has been ongoing and we welcome the establishment of a cultural consultative committee to provide consideration of the cultural and heritage values at Middle Arm.”
