A company owned by Australia's richest man has lost an appeal against a decision made under Aboriginal heritage laws that stopped it from building a series of weirs on a river that ran through a cattle property.
Forrest and Forrest, a private company of iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest and his wife, Nicola, had sought to build the weirs along the Ashburton river to enable greater water capture which could then be used on the property.
The Western Australian State Administrative Tribunal upheld a 2019 decision by the state's minister for aboriginal affairs to reject the plan, citing the importance of the river to the Indigenous Buurabalayji Thalanyji people, who are the Native Title holders of the land.
