News Home

North Queensland irrigation plan: Indigenous elders claim lack of consultation in Gilbert River scheme

AM By Rachel Carbonell
Gilbert River

The scheme would use 10 per cent of the Gilbert River catchment's flows.

ABC News: Rachel Carbonell

Traditional owners in North Queensland say there has been a lack of consultation over plans to build one of the country's biggest irrigation schemes in the Gilbert River catchment.

Integrated Food and Energy Developments (IFED) wants to extract about 500,000 megalitres a year to irrigate a large-scale sugar cane plantation.

The Ewamian people have native title over the area where the development is proposed.

Ewamian Aboriginal Corporation coordinator Sharon Prior says many people are optimistic about the proposal but are concerned that not enough is being done to identify and protect significant sites.

"From Ewamian's perspective, mainly that the cultural heritage hasn't been addressed to date, and I realise it is going to come further on in the process, but Ewamian people passionately feel that the cultural heritage has to be addressed."

The IFED proposal also includes a sugar mill, ethanol production and an abattoir and would be spread across about 65,000 hectares of Ewamian land.

IFED says it would need to use about 10 per cent of the catchment's flows to irrigate the project.

But the three big rivers that run through the area - Gilbert, Etheridge and Einasleigh - all run for hundreds of kilometres to the Gulf of Carpentaria, through two other Indigenous community groups.

Janet Busch is from the Tagalaka people around Croydon, further west, and says communities downstream will also be affected and need to be consulted.

"There has not been enough, there's been none between the traditional owners. I'd like to see the three traditional owners get together ... that's Tagalaka, that's Croydon and the Georgetown mob," Ms Busch said.

"Us all need to be able to sit down in one hall and have a big meeting ... and talk.

"I can't talk for Georgetown, I can't talk for Normanton, I can only talk for Croydon. If all the tribes are there, we can talk face to face with one another."

Rivers have 'important spiritual value'

Rosemary Hill, a senior research scientist with CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, was a member of the 2009 Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce.

"The research that CSIRO has been doing has shown that those rivers in the north have some very important cultural and spiritual values," she said.

"There's dreamings associated with the rivers, there are animals that live in the rivers that are totems and there are ceremonies that depend on the rivers.

"There are stories that depend on the rivers that are the foundation of customary law for those Indigenous societies."

Dr Hill says the best way to ensure that rivers are managed properly is to establish collaborative governance arrangements where all the needs and rights along a river system are taken into account.

And she says Indigenous consultation is a critical part of that process.

"Research has shown that there can be a lot of connection between water extraction in one part of the river and maintenance of values in another part," she said.

"On the Daly River people looked at how much you'd have to lower the water table in order that the pools, that the turtles and other fish species [that] survive in the dry season remain.

"And that's not very much, so you can have what seems to be a very moderate extraction that has a big impact on a river system because it has some very strong environmental limits."

IFED wants traditional owners to participate

IFED chairman Keith De Lacy says he believes the amount of water the scheme would use is sustainable.

And he says he wants to work with traditional owners and Indigenous communities in the region.

First and foremost Indigenous people need to be involved right from the start and that hasn't happened.
Keith De Lacey, IFED chairman

"We've spoken to the traditional owners. I grew up in this part of the world. I actually know the traditional owners and I've been speaking to them. We want them to participate in it.

"We put a few proposals to them and let's hope that works out but ... we are determined to ensure that this project recognises the needs of Indigenous Australians."

The Australian Conservation Foundation is concerned that consultation has not been sufficient and has come too late in the process.

"From our understanding of talking to CSIRO and other scientists, there are opportunities for some development in northern Australia of small-scale irrigation works and thinking about a mosaic across the landscape," director of campaigns Paul Sinclair said.

"But critically we need to consider, right upfront, the rights and obligations we have to Indigenous people to be involved from the start in the sort of development that will happen in northern Australia, and the Gilbert River is an example of where that has not occurred.

"So first and foremost Indigenous people need to be involved right from the start and that hasn't happened."

IFED must complete an environmental impact statement and an engineering feasibility study and submit those to government.

The Queensland Government says all potential social, environmental and economic impacts will be closely scrutinised before approval can be considered.

More Stories