As distressed traditional owners in Central Australia grapple with the approval of the Northern Territory's largest groundwater licence at Singleton Station, Aboriginal elders and pastoralists further north are bracing for yet another battle over a precious resource.
Mining company Australian Ilmenite Resources (AIR) has plans to extract 3.3 billion litres (3,300ML) of water every year from the Roper River for its mine located around 100 kilometres east of Mataranka.
The water application is currently being considered by the NT Water Controller amid a groundswell of opposition and calls to reject the licence.
Of those is Caroline Bulabul, a traditional owner, artist and the daughter of the late Sammy Bulabul, who was one of three Native Title holders taken to court by AIR in 2018 over their refusal to provide access to the Roper River for the construction of a pipeline needed to extract water for a dam.
After a succession of record dry years spanning 2018 and 2019, Ms Bulabul said she was worried about the river "disappearing".
"We used to go there as children, our dad took us out in the school holidays for four weeks," she said.
"We had to live on that water to survive."
The Roper River is the second-largest river in the territory with its headwaters reaching north into Arnhem Land and south into the drier expanse of the Beetaloo Basin.
Today, it is still the lifeblood of the Indigenous communities it flows through.
"It supplies us so much food … we use it for fishing, bush tucker, we use the lilies to make flour," Ms Bulabul said.
AIR was given NT Environmental Protection Agency approval to begin mining in 2012, using just half the amount of water it is now applying for.
In 2014, it was placed into receiver management and not long after it was purchased by Roper Resources.
By the middle of 2017, production had quietly begun again, and its first exports were being shipped overseas.
The company said it hoped to produce 100,000-120,000 tonnes of ilmenite every year and needs the extra water to do so.
Yet in its application, AIR conceded the "ability to predict the potential impacts … is very limited" because "there has not been detailed water assessment of water availability carried out as part of a water allocation plan".
Despite doubling its water requirements, the NT Environment Protection Authority said AIR did not need to refer its plans back for assessment provided "the mining operations are consistent with the project that was assessed".
But emerging elder Winston Thompson said that was a "great concern".
He said traditional owners and residents in the communities on the banks of the river had largely been left in the dark and no negotiations, nor consultations, had taken place.
"We want proper research carried out first and an environmental impact study done," he said.
"We don't have an answer, but proper research would help traditional owners in decision making."
Pastoralist Daniel Tapp said it was essential the iconic river was protected.
"We don't know if there's enough water, but still heavy water-using industries such as mining, gas, cotton, and industrial agriculture are lining up to take water for profit.
"I'm not against industry, but we have to make sure it's sustainable development."
Environment Centre NT co-director Dr Kirsty Howey said in the absence of an updated Environmental Impact Assessment, granting the licence would be "foolhardy".
"Ngukurr is downstream of this particular proposal but has been subjected to great water insecurity over the years," she said.
"And if this is going to impact those flows, then you have the potential of putting Ngukurr's drinking water at risk."
A spokeswoman for the NT Minister for Environment, Eva Lawler, said all decisions regarding water were informed by science.
Sacred sites dependent on the river
Bradley Farrar, a clan leader of the Alawa tribe, said he was torn over the water application.
While working as a truck driver at the mine last year he was actively fighting against oil and gas companies planning to frack the Beetaloo Basin.
He also said a number of sacred sites dependent on the river were on the line.
"Under the water is a big bark, it's been there for hundreds of years, and it's a detailed story of my mother's totem," he said.
He said he felt like he was "double dipping".
"On one hand I want to go back and work at the mine, it's the only way to get money, but on the other I need to protect the land," Mr Farrar said.
The CEO of the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA), Dr Ben Scambary, said while authority certificates were not mandatory for water extraction licences, AIR holds a certificate for registered sacred sites on the mine lease.
Last month, documents obtained by the ABC showed AAPA had serious concerns about the safety of nearly 100 sacred sites around around Singleton Station in Central Australia as its authority certificate did not take into account impacts on water levels.
"Authority certificates are a risk management tool [and] … offer statutory indemnity against prosecution under the Sacred Sites Act in relation to works, provided the applicant complies with any conditions imposed to protect sacred sites," Dr Scambary said.
'Water management system flawed'
After 25 years of flying hundreds of kilometres to study the NT's water systems, it is the Roper River that Professor Sue Jackson from the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University knows best.
For years she conducted research on the social and cultural significance of the upper Roper River for the Mataranka Water Allocation Plan, which a decade later is still not complete.
In its absence, she said there was no way of telling if the water application by AIR would have seismic impacts or not.
But of even greater concern is the failure to establish water allocation plans across the territory, she said, which were a crucial trigger for Strategic Aboriginal Water Reserves (SAWRs).
In the Northern Territory, 95 per cent of the jurisdiction has no water allocation plan in place.
"We're really critical of the failure of the planning process because it enables government to hand out water to all of these industry parties in the absence of having to consider the effect on Aboriginal people and the opportunities for them to benefit," Professor Jackson said.
Erin O'Donnell from the Centre for Resources, Energy and Environment Law at the University of Melbourne agreed, and said the decisions were "indicative of systemic racism".
"The reason why I think you can say that, in the case of Northern Territory, is that they have a law on the books which says they need to allocate water to Aboriginal people," she said.
"So failing to invest adequately in the water planning process means that they will never deliver on their commitment to provide a strategic Aboriginal water reserve."
Water in the NT remains free
Despite heavy criticisms, Dr O'Donnell said one small solution could make major inroads — charge for water.
It is already a requirement under the National Water Initiative, Dr O'Donnell said, but the disbandment in 2014 of the national body in charge of oversight meant there was less scope to hold individual states and territories to account.
She said putting a price tag on water could be used for further studies into mapping sustainable water allocation.
Caroline Bulabul shared the sentiment.
"The mining mob don't pay rent … but if they did, we could put that money back into helping the land," she said.
The ABC contacted AIR for comment but did not receive a response.
