A pastoralist is attempting to overturn a court order granting a gas fracking company access to a Northern Territory cattle station, saying it's causing "havoc" on the property.
Tamboran Resources subsidiary Sweetpea Petroleum previously won the legal right to explore parts of Rallen Australia's Tanumbirini station in the gas-rich Beetaloo Basin.
But Rallen's lawyer Noel Hutley SC says the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal erred when it interpreted parts of the legislation concerning exploration and disturbance of land holder activities.
"The exercise of assessing what should have been in the access agreement was infected by legal error," he told the Supreme Court in Darwin on Monday.
"Therefore it constructively failed to exercise its jurisdiction to determine the terms of the access agreement ... They failed in their duty."
Sweetpea started work clearing land, sinking bores and building roads in May on the 5000sq km property, 600km southeast of Darwin.
"Sweetpea's operations are already causing havoc. They have cut our fences, bulldozed access routes and flouted their own plans for protecting our stock," Rallen co-director Pierre Langenhoven said before the hearing started.
The company said it had eight grounds of appeal, including an argument that the access agreement imposes lesser standards on Sweetpea than the minimum protections required under NT law.
It will also argue the NTCAT decision failed to provide sufficient protection for the water infrastructure on Tanumbirini station, which could put livestock at risk.
Rallen said Sweetpea is the first gas explorer to force its way onto a cattle station since the NT rolled out amended petroleum regulations in 2021 requiring parties to reach a land access agreement before operations started.
The pastoralist leases 1.1 million hectares of land on six stations in the NT with 70,000 head of Brahman cattle. It has spent $200 million in the past four years developing the properties.
The stations are Tanumbirini, Kalala, Big River, Larizone, Mt McMinn and Forrest Hill.
Rallen in January agreed to end a court stoush with Santos after the gas producer agreed to reform its stakeholder engagement and stop work at two controversial exploration wells.
The cattle company's complaint in that legal battle was that Santos withheld information designed to balance the interests of miners and landholders and misled it into extending access to Tanumbirini station.
Tamboran has a permit for exploratory fracking that covers parts of Tanumbirini and the neighbouring Beetaloo station.
The company has previously said it will continue to defend its legal right to work on the station that it's had a permit to explore for more than a decade.
It said the approved access agreement was issued according to the fair processes laid out in the NT's new Petroleum Regulation.
The company says it continues to work closely with all stakeholders, including pastoral leaseholders and the Northern Land Council.
It has also committed to minimise any risks associated with the onshore shale gas industry highlighted in a 2018 inquiry.
The Beetaloo is one of a number of gas fields the previous Morrison government planned to develop to help boost the economy and secure Australia's energy supply.
It caused concern among many in the territory, who fear it could jeopardise efforts to meet the nation's emissions reduction target and contaminate groundwater in a series of linked aquifers.
About 90 per cent of the NT's water supply comes from groundwater.
Tamboran Resources has been contacted for comment.
The hearing continues.
