On a remote island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, plans are underway to start growing Indian sandalwood trees commercially.
The Anindilyakwa Land Council (ALC), which represents traditional owners on Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory, has been investigating economic opportunities for the community beyond mining.
The ALC's sustainability officer Graeme Brown said community elders were supportive of the idea of growing sandalwood trees on land previously mined for manganese.
"When the mine ends on Groote Eylandt, and it's been there for almost 60 years, it'll leave a big hole, and we're looking for opportunities for the local economy," Mr Brown said.
"The community wants to give this [sandalwood] a go, so we'll be setting up a four- or five-hectare plot to see if it works properly for Groote Eylandt."
Indian sandalwood is grown commercially in other areas of northern Australia, including Western Australia's Ord Irrigation Scheme and the NT's Katherine and Douglas Daly regions.
The tree is valued for its oil-baring heartwood, which is used in a range of products, including perfumes and traditional Chinese medicine.
Local sandalwood
Groote Eylandt is no stranger to sandalwood trees, with two varieties occurring naturally on the island, including Indian sandalwood, which is referred to by locals as 'sandalwood 2'.
"We don't use sandalwood 2 for bush medicine, but, hey, it could be very important for Groote Eylandt's future," elder Elaine Mamarika said in a video posted by the ALC.
As the community prepares for its first trial, it has struck up a partnership with Quintis — the world's largest producer of Indian sandalwood.
"They're helping us and have the knowledge on irrigation, fire control, weed control and how to actually grow the seedlings," Mr Brown said.
"We had some senior traditional owners visit the Quintis plantations at Douglas Daly and they were impressed.
"Hopefully, this year, we'll get to go to Kununurra to see some processing."
Quintis chief executive, Richard Henfrey said he was aware of some areas of northern Australia where Indian sandalwood was growing wild.
Mr Henfrey said he was excited about the opportunity for a trial plantation on Groote Eylandt.
"I would sense the best thing to do with the [upcoming] trial would be to grow some of the local sandalwood trees and some of our Quintis lines which come from our genetic trials," he said.
"This is a great opportunity to use sandalwood for good and help the local community heal the land [after mining] and, I think, there's so many positive aspects to this."
Getting ready for first trial
Mr Brown said traditional owners did not want to clear land for forestry, but focus purely on the land that had been mined by GEMCO.
The miner is expecting to end production on Groote in the next decade.
"[For forestry to succeed long-term] you'd have to get scale that's economic, so that might mean up to 1,000 hectares of mined-out land going to sandalwood plantations," Mr Brown said.
"It's perhaps not viable to have processing and distilling on Groote Eylandt, but logs or woodchip could be exported out."
He said the first sandalwood seedlings, along with their host trees, will be planted in the dry season of 2024.
