McArthur River, Australia

In the Dreamtime, the era of the creation of the world, the Rainbow Serpent sent cyclones and floods across a vast plain on Australia’s northern coast. According to the Aboriginal people of the Australia’s Northern Territory, these storms created the broad and winding McArthur River, which will always be a sacred part of the “dreaming” and of song cycles of the people. Today, a massive mine, and plans for its expansion, threaten to destroy the river where the spirit of the Rainbow Serpent resides. To meet worldwide mineral demand, catering primarily to the growing Chinese economy, the Northern Territory government has just approved a Swiss company’s expansion of the mine, which would involve a five-mile diversion of the river near the town of Borroloola. Aboriginals and environmentalists are outraged, arguing that the plan is an affront to the spiritual lives of the people and that changing the course of the river would irrevocably change their way of life. Harry Lansen, a traditional land owner, recently said, “It is no good. I will be sick if they cut the place, because my spirit is there. All my songs are across the river. I don't want to see that thing happen in the McArthur River.”

Report by Ashley Tindall
Posted November 2006
Thanks to Charles Roche for reviewing the text

History

The McArthur flows through the Northern Territory of Australia from the Anthony Lagoon, skirting the Barkly Tableland, through jungle and swampland for 150 miles to Port McArthur on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Ancient Aboriginal legend tells that the rainbow serpent traveled along the giant river stirring up storms during the ancient Dreamtime era.

Where the river empties into the Gulf, Aboriginal people, including the Yanyuwa and Gudanji, live on many small islands where they have traditionally harvested marine life and have waged a 29-year legal battle to be recognized as the owners of the lands. The Borroloola and the Sir Edward Pellow Islands in the Gulf support sea turtles and one of the world’s most important populations of dugong (a manatee-like mammal). The Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of Australia lists dugongs as a species of national environmental significance and the International Conservation Union (IUCN) lists them as a vulnerable species. The McArthur River is known for its exceptionally high marine biodiversity and is popular with recreational fishermen, especially after commercial fishermen were excluded from exploiting the river.

Xstrata, a Swiss mining outfit, runs one of the world's biggest zinc, lead and silver mines, which lies primarily underground about 750 kilometers southeast of the city of Darwin on the banks of the McArthur River. Xstrata bought the operation in 2003, although the mine has been in operation since 1995. The Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments welcomed the project in 1995, as evidenced by the Chief Minister for the NT Parliament’s enthusiasm: “The opportunities for Territorians to get highly skilled, highly paid jobs associated with these expansions are tangible. It is great!” The government fast-tracked the original environmental assessment and has subsidized the operation from the beginning with funding for major infrastructure and concessions on taxes and royalties. Government documents show the Xstrata mine receives about $100 million in subsidized electricity. The government had hoped that the mine would pay mineral royalties, but it has consistently operated at a loss. Following development of the project, the mining company failed to negotiate an agreement with or pay royalties to the local Aboriginal groups, the traditional owners who possess the land title.

The communities in the area noticed sickness in dugongs and turtles downstream of the mining operation soon after the mine began operating. In 2001, Australia’s Environment Centre (an NGO) exposed the mine’s practice of dumping contaminated water into the river. The mining company claimed that pollution would be diluted due to the broadness of the river. Now, a new diversion plan may lead to even more dumping of polluted water into the McArthur and untold damage to riparian and marine life.

Current challenges

Due to flagging profits, Xstrata now wants to convert the mine to an open pit operation, hoping to reduce labor costs and access mineral reserves under the McArthur River. In particular, Xstrata wants to capitalize on escalating Chinese demand for zinc, which has pushed the market price of zinc to $3,300 a ton. The company plans to dig the pit in the current location of the river, construct a large channel with a high wall around the pit, and divert the river over a five-kilometer section. In addition, to create the pit, Xstrata will push the approximately 180 tons of waste rock into a 50-meter high heap that would further pollute the water. Local advocates for economic development want to see the mine stay open and therefore back the expansion in order to preserve 300 valuable jobs.

Opponents of the plan claim that the government has not adequately assessed the potential damage this major diversion would cause to the sacred McArthur River as well as to numerous traditional lands and sacred sites along the river’s course. The Gudanji and other Aboriginal groups have expressed fears that the disrespect shown to the Rainbow Serpent from the diversion of the McArthur will bring storms, floods and other natural disasters. Fraser Baker, a Gudanji elder, told the Christian Science Monitor, “People believe that they’ll slowly die if that Rainbow Serpent is disturbed. If you start messing with it, something bad is going to happen. Xstrata has done nothing for our communities, and we don’t want the plan to go ahead.”

Locals point out that the McArthur mine is located in a floodplain and say they are worried that the massive river could easily overflow the planned new course during the monsoon season. “A river like this has never been diverted before in Australia. It’s a gamble, an experiment without precedent,” said WWF-Australia spokesperson Stuart Blanch. Conservation groups and the Aboriginal peoples worry that the McArthur would be contaminated by heavy metals during floods, threatening the Freshwater Sawfish, migratory birds, and turtles as well as damaging the seagrass habitats that support the dugong population and the commercial prawn fisheries in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The project is also likely to pollute groundwater. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999 requires the government to consider impacts of development activity on matters of national environmental significance. The government’s environmental assessment recognized that the McArthur River mine expansion plan would have a potential impact on two nationally significant matters – the threatened Freshwater Sawfish and several species of migratory birds – though conservationists and local groups consider even this to be an incomplete assessment.

While local Aboriginal traditional owners recently gained legal rights (officially called “Native Title”) to the mine site after 29 years of lawsuits against the government, they do not have veto rights over the mining plan. Downstream of the mine, the Yanyuwa people have voiced their opposition to the mine. “The Yanyuwa people in Borroloola are getting their islands back after 29 years only to have their river taken away,” says Steve Johnson, who represents the Yanyuwa people in the Borroloola area. “McArthur River Mining has not consulted Yanyuwa people or other Aboriginal language groups downstream of the mine. The Northern Territory government must protect the rights of economically impoverished indigenous people and their country.” Johnson says that neither Xstrata nor the government adequately consulted the traditional owners about the mine proposal: “They wouldn’t take any notice of anything, they didn’t talk to any of us. They weren’t interested in what they didn’t want to know.”

Preservation Efforts

On October 15th, 2006, more than forty traditional owners from Borroloola drove to Darwin, the Territorial capital, to publicize their opposition to the McArthur River mine expansion, but the Federal Government pre-empted their protest by announcing approval of the expansion. Barbara McCarthy, Member of Parliament for Arnhem and an Aboriginal herself, stood up in Parliament to support the protests of the traditional owners. Wearing the traditional dress of her people, McCarthy pled with the ministers: “Understand that it has been a long journey for these old people. What they ask is your respect. I ask all the members of this house: what have you done this week to talk to them, ask them what troubles them? Are they so insignificant? I say to my countrymen of all the four clans: I support you. I understand and I respect your right to be heard.”

The Northern Territory (NT) Minister and the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) claim that they certified the expansion on condition that Xstrata must respect key sacred sites, including those having to do with the rainbow serpent. Territory Environment Minister Ian Campbell justified his approval of the expansion, “I think it [the approval] sends a signal that is a very useful one to send: you can have development, you can have mining take place, but you can also have a very good outcome for the environment. We believe that you can have a win-win, we think this is a good project for the Northern Territory and that it can be done while protecting the environment.”

Senator Campbell said that Xstrata is required to implement a Freshwater Sawfish management and monitoring plan and monitor the impact of metal pollution on listed migratory birds. Xstrata also must pay $32 million to the Borroloola community and a $55.5 million security bond to offset any costs the mine might incur to the community. However, the conservationists argue that the costs of the impact to water quality, marine species, and to the health and livelihoods of the local peoples would be far greater.

Further, Minister Campbell waived off the Aboriginal protests: “The Indigenous issues are not ones that come before me; I have quite specific matters I need to look at that are to do with the nationally environmentally significant issues: migratory birds and the freshwater swordfish. I’ve looked at those from the Commonwealth’s perspectives. I’m very satisfied they can be managed. I have enormous respect for the Indigenous Australians and their culture but that is not a matter that I have to consider as part of my process.”

Anthropologist John Bradley explained the stalemate that now exists between the government and Aboriginals over the significance of sacred sites: “Australia generally fails to take any of this into consideration seriously and more often than not, we give it token gesture acceptance and put it away as cute little stories that really have no relevance to the world that we’re operating in, but we forget that there are people born and bred to this way of thinking. It’s their reason for being.”

A coalition of environmental groups composed of the Environment Centre NT, the Wilderness Society, Australian Marine Conservation Society, the Australian Conservation Foundation, and the Mabunji Aboriginal Resource Association submitted a letter expressing grave concerns regarding the approval of the McArthur River mine expansion to Chris Natt, Minister for Mines, immediately after the approval of the mine expansion in October 2006.

The Environment Centre NT is weighing its legal options and may sue the Government to undertake a judicial review of the Territory and Commonwealth Governments’ decision to approve the mine. “We don’t believe those decisions were based on proper scientific considerations, nor has it taken into account the social, economic and cultural impacts and issues relating to this mine,” announced Environment Centre spokesperson Peter Robertson. “If we go ahead with the action, and if we are successful, then presumably the ministers will be ordered by the courts to reconsider their decisions.” For now, the Centre is organizing direct action and letter-writing campaigns to keep pressure on the NT government. They are also starting a corporate campaign that is focused on Credit Suisse, Xstrata’s major shareholder.

What You Can Do

Write Chief Minister of the Northern Territory of Australia Clare Martin at chiefminister.nt@nt.gov.au asking her to protect the McArthur River and rescind permission for Xstrata to mine it. If you are writing from outside Australia, remind her that the world is watching Australia’s actions.

You can view a sample letter on The Environment Centre NT’s website.

Find other ways to help and lots of current information on the Environment Centre’s blog, run by Charles Roche.

Resources

• Read a news article in The Australian (December 21, 2006), “Aboriginal group takes action over mine”
• For more information on the McArthur conservation campaigns, visit the Northern Territory Environment Centre or the Australian Conservation Foundation.
• For more information on the Aboriginal communities around McArthur, visit the Mabunji Resource Centre.
• “Aboriginal MP makes landmark speech,” Tara Ravens. The Australian. October 20, 2006.
• “Living Black”, Series 6: Episode 12, October 18, 2006.
• “Stop Digging Down Under?” Nick Squires. The Christian Science Monitor. October 16, 2006.
• “Mine approval a concern for northern Australia,” ABC Radio Darwin, October 20, 2006.
• “Mining Company Clout Overrides Sacred Aboriginal Site,” Rachel Trevarthan. October 31, 2006.
• Australia Update, September 20, 2006.
• Listen to a local radio broadcast.
• Read the NT’s Government’s Environmental Impact Assessment.
• To see more photos of the mine project and read the Xstrata's plans, visit the McArthur River Mining site.
• Compare corporate conflicts in the United States in our 80-page report: Corporate Responsibility for the Protection of Native American Sacred Sites.