Native title holders have taken a case to the High Court to assert their rights over an aquifer after a horticulture company was granted a massive water allocation to grow fruit and vegetables in the desert.
Six native title holders from the Mpwerempwer Aboriginal Corporation attended a hearing in Canberra on Tuesday to challenge the licence issued for free by the Northern Territory government.
It authorises Fortune Agribusiness to extract 40 gigalitres of groundwater at Singleton Station every year for 30 years, equal to draining Sydney Harbour twice.
It is the largest groundwater licence issued in the NT as part of a plan to develop thousands of hectares on Singleton Station, south of Tennant Creek, into an intensive irrigated horticulture business.
Traditional Owners say the project threatens sacred sites, cultural survival and a fragile desert water system.
They say it risks permanently damaging an ancient aquifer, at least 40 groundwater-dependent sacred sites and community water supplies.
"When groundwater levels drop below the reach of roots of sacred trees and plants, they die. Animals connected to dreaming stories disappear," the owners said in a statement.
Alyawarr Traditional Owner Frankie Holmes said water was central to people's identity and survival.
"Looking after land and country, especially sacred trees, is very, very important for us. Ancestors hand it over to us to look after these waters and these lands."
Native title holder and Mpwerempwer director Dawn Swan said after six years of fighting the water allocation the High Court's decision to hear the case gave her hope.
"We have people living on the land and this is their dream to stay here for future generations," she said.
Backing the owner corporation, Central Land Council general manager Josie Douglas said it was an important opportunity to have owners concerns about the Singleton water licence taken seriously.
The council claims the water licence is worth between $70 million and $300 million.
"Yet the NT government is granting the licence free of charge to Fortune Agribusiness," it said in a statement.
The Mpwerempwer Corporation has told the High Court the impact on Aboriginal cultural values was not taken into account by the NT government in granting the licence.
An appeal by Traditional Owners in the NT Supreme Court failed in May 2025.
The NT government said the courts had already correctly identified the law does not impose an obligation on a government minister to consider the impact on Aboriginal cultural values.
Fortune has called on the court to dismiss the appeal.
