A gas company has started exploratory work on a Northern Territory cattle property despite opposition from the station's pastoralists and some traditional owners against fracking.
Gas company Sweetpea began preparatory works for fracking at Tanumbirini Station last week.
The station, which lies in the gas-rich Beetaloo Basin, 700 kilometres south-east of Darwin, is run by Rallen Australia.
The company is owned by the Langenhoven-Ravazzotti family — one of the Northern Territory's largest and newest cattle producers — who are opposed to fracking.
After negotiations between the parties broke down, the territory's Civil and Administrative Tribunal ordered a land access agreement between Rallen and Sweetpea.
It allowed the gas company to enter the station.
Rallen Australia operations manager Andrew Stubbs said the arrangement had been forced upon his company.
"We don't want the gas fracking, we're opposed to it," he said.
Rallen will receive a minimum of $15,000 compensation per gas well drilled on the property as a part of the agreement.
Sweetpea's lawyers sent letters to Rallen last week, stating the station owners could be liable for costs of more than $40,000 per day if its access to the property was impeded.
"Sweetpea intends to take all reasonable precautions in ensuring that its intended access to Tanumbirini Station proceeds unhindered," Sweetpea's lawyers Squire Patton Boggs said.
"Those precautions may include, but not be limited to, the engagement of relevant department officials and observers as well as security or law enforcement agents."
ABC Rural understands the company was not impeded when it cut Tanumbirini's fence and built a new gate to access the property late last week.
Tamboran Resources vice-president of operations and external affairs David Close said all work done through his company's subsiduary Sweetpea had been approved through the company's environmental management plan.
He said Sweetpea was trying to have as "co-operative a relationship as possible" with the landholders.
"The laws in Australia and the NT are that there is overlapping tenure – so a pastoral lease can co-exist with leases that give rights to mineral exploration or gas exploration," Mr Close said.
"We are required to co-operate and collaborate to allow access to all those valid interest holders."
A new alliance
Pastoralists met with a group of traditional owners at the station to share their concerns about fracking and to "monitor" the company's activities.
Traditional owner Loris Hume said she had fond memories of growing up at Tanumbirini Station's former homestead, where both of her grandparents were buried.
"This country means a lot to me," Ms Hume said.
"We used to play around [at the homestead] and the old people would take us hunting and fishing."
Ms Hume said she had moved 100 kilometres north-west to the remote community of Minyerri, but returned to the station due to concerns her country might become Australia's newest gasfield.
"It's a bit sad for us looking at this [gas] company," she said.
The Northern Land Council, the prescribed body corporate representing traditional owners in the Beetaloo region, has said an agreement existed between native title holders, Sweetpea and the council.
But not all traditional owners in the region were happy with that agreement.
Nurrdalinji Native Title Aboriginal Corporation chair Johnny Wilson said his organisation was formed by a range of traditional owners across the Beetaloo Basin who were concerned about fracking on their country.
"My big concern about fracking on our country is our water, our cultural heritage, our sacred sites, and our future," he said.
He said he was concerned the underground water would be contaminated.
He said the government was not listening to traditional owners' concerns for their country, future or sacred sites and cultural heritage
"They are not listening to the First Nations people of this country," he said.
Sacred site protection 'in force'
Mr Close pointed to the Pepper Inquiry's 2018 findings that the risks of fracking could be mitigated if all its 135 recommendations were met.
The Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority issued an authority certificate to protect the sacred sites at Tanumbirini Station, south of the Carpentaria Highway, in 2020.
"This certificate remains valid and in force," a statement from the authority reads.
Mr Close said Sweetpea's civil works were planned in consultation with the authority so no sacred sites would be impacted.
"That is something we are diligently ensuring — [that] there are no impacts [on sacred sites] and we have done a lot of work with Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority to make sure they are going to be protected," Mr Close said.
Rallen is appealing the administrative tribunal's access orders in the NT Supreme Court in June.
