The History of Binninj Opposition to Uranium Mining

Uranium was discovered throughout Northern Australia from the 1950’s.

By the mid-1970’s the Australian Government was faced with a major political conflict over uranium mining operations in the Kakadu region. On one hand powerful mining companies were offering jobs and export income. On the other, many Australians were opposed to participation in the nuclear fuel cycle.

Like most Government’s facing a difficult situation, the Australian Government commissioned an inquiry into the issues facing uranium mining in the Northern Territory in July 1975. The Inquiry was chaired by Justice Fox and became known as “The Fox Inquiry”.

At the same time as the Fox Inquiry was taking place the Australian Government passed legislation which allowed traditional Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory to gain legal title to their land (the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (Cth) 1976) . It was clear that the Kakadu region was one of the areas likely to be successfully claimed by traditional owners and so the Fox Inquiry looked in some detail at local Aboriginal attitudes to uranium mining in the Kakadu region. In the Second Report of the Fox Inquiry a summary of Aboriginal attitudes to uranium mining was included:

The evidence before us shows that the traditional owners of the Ranger [uranium] site [the Mirarr] and the Northern Land Council (as now constituted) are opposed to the mining of uranium on that site ... Some Aboriginals had at an earlier stage approved, or at least not disapproved, the proposed development, but it seems likely that they were not then as fully informed about it as they later became.

Traditional consultations had not then taken place, and there was a general conviction that opposition was futile. The Aboriginals do not have confidence that their own view will prevail; they feel that uranium mining development is almost certain to take place at Jabiru, if not elsewhere in the Region as well. They feel that having gone so far, the white man is not likely to stop. They have a justifiable complaint that plans for mining have been allowed to develop as far as they have without the Aboriginal people having an adequate opportunity to be heard ... it is not in the circumstances possible for us to say that the development would be beneficial to them. There can be no compromise with the Aboriginal position; either it is treated as conclusive, or it is set aside ... In the end, we form the conclusion that their opposition should not be allowed to prevail (Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry 1977, 9).

When discussing the land claim, the Inquiry made a number of other comments in relation to Aboriginal attitudes to mining: While royalties and the other payments referred to in (b) are not unimportant to the Aboriginal people, they see this aspect as incidental, as a material recognition of their rights ... Our impression is that they would happily forgo the lot in exchange for an assurance that mining would not proceed (Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry 1977, 269).

So it was clear that Aboriginal people did not want mining in the region and clear that the Government was determined for mining to go ahead.

The Government’s intentions to proceed against Aboriginal wishes were confirmed when it exempted the Ranger uranium mine, which is on Mirarr land, from the traditional owner “mining veto” provisions of the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976. As a result, negotiations between the Aboriginal representative body (the Northern Land Council) and the Australian Government with regard to the Ranger uranium mine proceeded as a fait accompli in 1978.

However the Mirarr continued to voice their dissatisfaction with the idea of the Ranger uranium mine proceeding. It was reported that a meeting of 40 traditional owners at Gunbalanya in early October 1978 had told the NLC that they did not accept the draft Ranger mining agreement. According to newspaper reports 12 of the traditional owners “spoke at length on their dissatisfaction with the present agreement”.

The then Mirarr Senior Traditional Owner, Toby Gangale (Yvonne Margarula’s late father) was quoted as saying: “I don’t like that [Ranger] agreement. I wish it would go away for six months ... I wish it would go away for five years” (The Northern Territory News, 12 October 1978).

In the end, when the agreement was finally signed, the evidence demonstrates that the NLC did not act on the instructions of the traditional owners. Stephen Zorn, who was one of the negotiators of the agreement, wrote to the Chairman of the NLC arguing that “Mr Yunupingu and the NLC staff had pressured members to ratify the Ranger agreement”.

“There was indeed pressure, and there was not the sort of real, effective consultation that is required both by Section 23 of the Land Rights Act and by ordinary common decency”, Dr Zorn said ... “For all of these reasons, I think it quite reasonable for people to conclude that the NLC leadership and staff, pushed, it is clear by the Commonwealth government, have created a situation in which many Aboriginals are not satisfied...” (quoted in The Northern Territory News, 30 October 1978.

At the so-called signing of the agreement the Mirarr Senior Traditional Owner, Toby Gangale, when he was finally asked to speak, was quoted as saying:

"I've given up. It's been six years now. I'm not fighting anymore" (National U, Special Supplement, November 1978).

The Ranger uranium mine has continued for twenty years against the wishes of the Mirarr. In 1998 the Mirarr were informed that the Ranger mine would require an extension of its 21 year lease which expires on January 9, 2000. They were informed that their right to say “no” to Ranger remained exempted. Once again Mirarr opposition to mining will not be allowed to prevail.

In 1971 Pancontinental Mining Ltd and Getty Oil Development Company Ltd entered into an agreement for uranium exploration. The first of the Jabiluka ore bodies was discovered in November 1971. The Environmental Impact Statement was submitted in 1979. The Jabiluka Ore Body is approximately 25 km from the existing Ranger uranium mine. Both are wholly within Mirarr land. Aboriginal opposition to the Jabiluka project was well known from the outset. According to business magazine Rydge's in September 1978: There is well-known [Aboriginal] opposition to the Jabiluka development. This opposition is more deep-seated than that to Ranger (Rydge's, vol 51, September 1978).

Land Rights News had commented on the views of two of the senior traditional owners of the area in early 1978:

If there is to be any mining, it should be kept to the Ranger mine which should be kept small. They did not want the Pancontinental mine at Jabiluka. Toby Gangale and Bill Neidji said they did not want the Pancontinental mine (Land Rights News No 20, April 1978). The Commonwealth Government gave approval in May 1978 for Pancontinental to drill at the proposed mine site so that it could complete the Environmental Impact Statement (see The Canberra Times, 13 May 1978). The Government pointed out that there was no legal requirement for Aboriginal people to consent to the proposed work.

Strong opposition was expressed by Aboriginal people, the NLC and the Australian Labor Party spokesman on Urban and Regional Affairs Mr Uren. The Government's approval for the drilling was given during the negotiations over the Ranger agreement and the work included an extension of the Arnhem Highway to the Jabiluka project area. The announcement surprised and angered the chairman of the Northern Land Council, Mr Galarrwuy Yunupingu, who has told the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, that Aborigines in the region are totally opposed to the Jabiluka project because of the dangers it poses to the environment (Sydney Morning Herald, 13 May 1978).

The NLC Chairman conceded that mining would probably proceed at Ranger:

"... but we will fight it to the end at Jabiluka ... There is no way we are going to give in to Pancon, we don't want to see any development there ... the traditional owners of the land are already moving back to the area after having been displaced by the whiteman" (Northern Territory News, 2 June 1978).

One of the problems confronting Pancontinental was how to get permission from the traditional owners to undertake certain preliminary activities on the proposed mine site given their opposition to the mining. A number of meetings were organised by the company to “walk over” the site of the proposed mine

Tapes of one of the meetings between the company representatives and a selected group of traditional owners have been obtained and transcribed. The tapes clearly show how:

The traditional owners were pressured into accepting, step by step, the beginning of mining activity on their land; the company presented its proposals in a way that did not explain effectively the full ramifications of what was being proposed; some of the proposals directly related to the mine were presented as though they had no connection to mining.

In 1980 the Mirarr and other Aboriginal people in the region lodged a claim for their land under the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976. In 1981, Pan Continental agreed with the Northern Land Council not to oppose the land claim if negotiations on Jabiluka proceeded.

The Mirarr maintain that over the next eighteen months they were tricked, cajoled and pressured by the NLC and Pan Continental into believing that mining at Jabiluka was inevitable - just like at Ranger. A fuller account of this process is outlined in a publication titled, The History of Duress and the Jabiluka Project. As a result of this allegedly unconscionable conduct the Mirarr “consented” to the Northern Land Council and Pan Continental entering into the Jabiluka Mining Agreement in July 1982.

However in 1983 the Hawke Labor Government was elected to office with a policy of halting expansion of the uranium mining industry. The Jabiluka Project was caught by this policy which remained in place for the next thirteen years.

By 1991 Pan Continental had effectively given up their hopes of mining at Jabiluka. They informed the Northern Land Council that they wished to sell their interest in Jabiluka to Energy Resources of Australia Ltd - the operator of the nearby Ranger uranium mine.

The terms of the 1982 Jabiluka Agreement clearly stated that the NLC could not reasonably withhold agreement to the sale of the Jabiluka Mineral Lease. However the NLC were able to negotiate terms of the sale which formed a document known as the 1991 Deed of Transfer.

One of the terms in the this Deed of Transfer - that ERA will require the consent of Traditional Owners before being able to mill Jabiluka ore at Ranger - is now of enormous significance. Many market analysts believe that the entire Jabiluka Project is completely economically unviable without the ability to mill uranium at the existing Ranger facilities. In 1997 the Mirarr formally announced the withholding of their consent for milling at Ranger and have since vowed to never to allow ERA to proceed with this option.

In the mid-1990’s, ERA attempted to get around the Labor Government’s policy of not allowing expansion of the uranium industry by renaming Jabiluka “North Ranger”. Nobody was fooled and Jabiluka remained stalled for the life of the Labor Government.

By the 1990’s it was obvious to all local Aboriginal people that the Ranger mine had failed to deliver any of its promised benefits. Despite the payment of royalties, the Aboriginal people of the region lived in desperate poverty and appalling conditions.

A few Aboriginal people from the region - not Traditional Owners of the Jabiluka Lease - were advised to lobby the Government to allow Jabiluka to proceed in order to raise money for much-needed services. This lobbying effort took place in 1991. Senior Traditional Owner for the Mirarr, Yvonne Margarula, attended at least two of these lobbying meetings to ensure Traditional Owner opposition to Jabiluka was not misrepresented.

Yvonne has opposed Jabiluka since becoming Senior Traditional Owner in the late 1980’s. She maintains her deceased father instructed her to protect the Jabiluka site despite the 1982 Agreement. In 1992 she and other Mirarr instructed the NLC that the Mirarr and other Aboriginal people did not wish for the mine to proceed. In 1994 she wrote to the Australian Labor Party urging them not to change their policy on the non-development of Jabiluka.

The Mirarr opposition prevailed until the election of the conservative Howard Government in 1996.

Despite inferring throughout the 1996 election campaign that Jabiluka would not proceed, the Howard Government began fast-tracking approval of the Jabiluka project immediately upon coming to office. The Howard Government decided to recognise the 14 year old Jabiluka Agreement - signed by a different generation for a different project with a different mining company under very dubious circumstances - rather than respect the long-held opposition to Jabiluka by Traditional Owners.

Realising the dire implications of the Howard Government’s policy on Jabiluka for the future of their people, the Mirarr created a specific Traditional Owner organisation out of their own funds. The organisation was called the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation after the language of the Mirarr people. Yvonne Margarula recruited her relative, Jacqui Katona, to be the Corporation’s Executive Officer.

After conducting much research into the history of the Jabiluka Agreement and participating in many discussions with Government officials and Ministers, the Mirarr and their small team of staff were convinced that Traditional Owner opposition to the project would not of itself achieve any change in the Commonwealth or Territory Governments’ policies about the development of Jabiluka. The Mirarr also encountered an inability to exercise their perceived rights to country under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT) 1976. As a result the Mirarr decided to embark upon a public campaign which has since become Australia’s highest profile land rights and environment case.

By the end of 1996 the Mirarr public campaign to stop the Jabiluka uranium mine was in full swing. There had been National Speaking Tour in September of 1996 which created unprecedented media and public attention for the Mirarr. Public forums had been held in the Northern Territory and alliances had been formed with other Aboriginal communities facing the prospect of unwanted uranium mines on their traditional country. International bodies such as the World Heritage Bureau had been sent submissions from the Mirarr. The Mirarr had co-produced a feature documentary which was to appear on national television.

In June 1997 the first year of full-scale campaigning activity was marked with the placing of an enormous anti-Jabiluka mine banner on an escarpment located within the Jabiluka mineral lease and visible from the Oenpelli Road.

Also in June 1997 the Senior Traditional Owner, accompanied by other Traditional Owners and staff, travelled to Darwin, Goulburn Island, Croker Island, Maningrida and Waiark with the key purpose of conveying information related to the Mirarr opposition to the Jabiluka uranium mine.

It was also at this time that the Mirarr discussed and responded to the Government-dominated agenda of the supposedly independent Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist (ERISS), which culminated in blockading of ERISS premises and picketing of an Alligator Rivers Region Advisory Committee meeting. In July of 1997 the Mirarr initiated Public Meetings in Sydney and Melbourne to build community support for their campaign to stop the Jabiluka uranium mine.

Mirarr and staff from Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation travelled to the Australian Universities Environment & Human Rights Conference in Townsville (“Students & Sustainability”) and received overwhelming support for the Mirarr fight against Jabiluka. As a result some 70 students travelled to Mirarr country and from 21-27 July participated with the Mirarr and support groups from around the nation in a National Week of Action on the Jabiluka issue.

In August 1997 that Federal Environment Minister Robert Hill handed down his recommendation for approval of the Jabiluka mine pursuant to an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) which had been prepared by Energy Resources Of Australia. The Government received thousands of submissions to the 1997 Jabiluka EIS urging the project not to proceed, including detailed submissions from the Northern Land Council and ATSIC. In reporting to the Minister for Environment and Heritage, Environment Australia raised serious concerns about long-term damage to the environment, Aboriginal people and World Heritage values.

Nonetheless, Senator Robert Hill recommended that the Jabiluka Project proceed. The Minister for Resources, Senator Warwick Parer, then approved the Jabiluka Project and in the process watered-down 95% of the conditions recommended by Senator Hill.

In September and October of 1997 the Mirarr worked on a native title claim over Jabiru as part of their overall aim of restoring Aboriginal jurisdiction in the region. Jabiru is currently an enclave of non-Aboriginal land within Mirarr country.

It was also at this time that the Mirarr hosted a visit by survivors of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.

In November of 1997 the Mirarr travelled to Alice Springs to meet with other Aboriginal people and a variety of support organisations in a forum the Mirarr had organised and titled “Alliance Against Uranium”. Mirarr and other Aboriginal people also conducted much work in seeking registration of the Boyweg-Almudj Sacred Site Complex which is located in part in the area of the Jabiluka Uranium Orebody. In December 1997 the Mirarr and staff travelled to Sydney to appear in Federal Court proceedings challenging the validity of the Jabiluka Mineral Lease.

In February of 1998 the Mirarr and staff spent three weeks on a National Speaking tour associated with the growing national and international campaign to stop Jabiluka and launched the feature documentary “Jabiluka”.

In March of 1998 the Mirarr prepared for the arrival of thousands of people seeking to “blockade” the Jabiluka uranium mine in support of the Mirarr. Mirarr had to consider protocols, staff allocation, infrastructure, permits and many other issues associated with an activity of such a scale. In addition there was major protest activity led by the Mirarr at this time.

On 19 May 1998 the Senior Traditional Owner was arrested with three other Aboriginal people for “trespassing” on the portion of the Mirarr estate currently subject to the Jabiluka Mineral Lease. In late May the Mirarr and staff were worked on preparation and proceedings associated with seeking an injunction against the Northern Territory Minister for Mines and Energy issuing a permit to begin instruction under the Uranium Mining (Environmental Controls) Act (NT).

In the beginning of June of this year the Federal Minister for the Environment announced that a Public Environment Report would be required for the Jabiluka Milling Alternative for the Jabiluka uranium mine. The Mirarr had necessitated this decision by earlier withholding consent for Jabiluka ore to be milled at ERA’s Ranger uranium mine. Also in June the Senior Traditional Owner and the Executive Officer attended the UNESCO World Heritage Bureau Meeting in Paris and were successful in convincing the Bureau to send a Mission to investigate the dangers to Mirarr living tradition and environment associated with the Jabiluka uranium mine.

Campaign activities involving the Mirarr escalated in July 1998 with the impending Federal Election, mass arrests at the ongoing blockade, a plethora of media requests and a National Campaign Meeting. Meetings commenced with the Shadow Minister for the Environment. In August the Senior Traditional Owner and the Executive Officer attended over 40 meetings and media conferences in Germany, Holland and England as part of the growing international aspect of the Jabiluka campaign.

On September of 1998 the Mirarr organised a meeting of Senior Traditional Owners from throughout the region to discuss ERA growing “divide and conquer” tactics within the region. There was also considerable media attention and activities associated with Jabiluka being the major land rights and environment issue in the Federal Election campaign. In October of 1998 the Mirarr participated in the UNESCO World Heritage Committee Mission to Kakadu and Canberra.

In November of 1998 the UNESCO Mission handed down its report finding that the Jabiluka mine posed serious threats to the cultural and natural values of the Kakadu World Heritage Area. Mirarr and staff travelled to the World Heritage Committee meeting in Kyoto, Japan.

In December of 1998 the World Heritage Committee accepted the UNESCO Mission Report and resolved that construction at Jabiluka should cease until the Australian Government could prove that the identified threats to Mirarr culture and country were being avoided. The Australian Government refused to comply with the UNESCO resolution.

In February of 1999 the Senior Traditional Owner appealed her conviction for trespassing on her own land. Mirarr and staff met with Minister Robert Hill who rejected Mirarr concerns about the impending desecration of the Boyweg-Almudj Site Complex.

A more detailed account of events and conversations around the negotiations for the Ranger and Jabiluka agreements is included in the duress document: "This is not about mining" The History of Duress and the Jabiluka Project. [Contact Gundjeihmi.]