Arkaroola to be protected for all time

Vanguard September 2011 p. 6
Nick G.

The Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in the Northern Flinders Ranges of South Australia is to be protected for all time.

This is a great win for the Aboriginal traditional custodians and for community values that embrace a wider aesthetic than that of private profit and selfish commercial interest.

Background

The area in which Arkaroola is located (see map above)is the traditional land of the Adnyamathanha people. Their lore contains a belief in a Spiritual Ancestor Virdimuranha who, under the influence of a poisonous easterly wind, became sick and vomited a greenish rock which continues to cause sickness.

Virdimuranha’s head rests at the rocky outcrop called Mt Gee, which is also the site of the main concentration of uranium ore.

Beginning in the late 1840s and early 1850s, European pastoralists began the process of unsettling the region, stealing the land from its owners and bringing in stock that competed with local fauna for food and water. Guns and stock whips were used on Adnyamathanha to keep them away from waterholes that were henceforth used for sheep and cattle.

Resistance to the unsettlers was led by Inabuthina. For six or seven years he attacked European settlements, avoiding direct battle, and using the terrain to the advantage of hit and run attacks. He was killed in 1864, and such was the colonial hatred for him that a police commander boasted of having placed his skull in his office to use as a spittoon.

After the defeat of the resistance, Adnyamathanha lived in enforced poverty, dependent on station handouts and employment by unsympathetic and racist pastoralists. However, they never surrendered their law, their culture or their language.

The Wilderness Sanctuary

Pastoralists were not the only Europeans to pioneer the unsettlement of the Adnyamathanha lands. In 1860 a short-lived copper mine was begun, followed by mining of rubies and sapphires in 1903. In 1910 copper mining was resumed and not long after, uranium was discovered by the Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson. Nuclear physicist Mark Oliphant helped source Arkaroola’s uranium for the US Manhattan project during WW2.


In the mid-1960s, with mineral exploration scarring the landscape, Adnyamathanha elders Wally and Andrew Coulthard hand-painted “Save this place” on a sheet of corrugated iron and placed it at Coulthard’s Lookout in Arkaroola.

In 1968, geologist Reg Sprigg bought the Arkaroola Pastoral Lease at the urging of both Mawson and Oliphant, for the express purpose of preserving the area for its geological significance and its unique and endangered wildlife. To an extent, this coincided with the interests of the traditional owners; on the other hand, it continued their dispossession. As a pastoral lease with a self-declared “sanctuary” status, the area was still open to exploration and mining.

Marathon Resources

In 2005, Marathon Resources, an Adelaide-based company, was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, and obtained an exploration lease for the Mt Gee section of Arkaroola. Extravagant claims were made for unproven uranium deposits, and an aggressive campaign of capital raising undertaken. This resulted in a flood of cash from multinational bank nominees, but the two biggest shareholders emerged as Talbot Group Holdings and CITIC. The former belonged to Queensland coal mining magnate Ken Talbot, about whom there was an obvious stench of corruption given his payments for favours to a subsequently jailed Queensland politician; the latter is the Chinese Government’s major overseas investment arm.

In January 2008, Marathon was exposed for having buried 22,000 bags of core samples and domestic waste in shallow pits at several sites in Arkaroola (right). This was in violation of its exploration licence, which was subsequently suspended by the Rann Government. A Primary Industries Department investigation also noted the theft of a significant deposit of rare crystalline fluorite, which could only have occurred using equipment that Marathon had in the area.

Marathon responded by appointing former Labor Senator Christopher Schacht as an Executive Director. Schacht was a shareholder who had been instrumental in overturning what had been a State Labor policy of prohibiting new uranium mines in the state. His appointment, together with Talbot’s involvement, prompted calls by our Party and others for an Independent Committee against Corruption (ICAC).

The illegal waste dumping cast a spotlight on Marathon, and a loose coalition of the Greens, SA Wilderness Society, leftwing bloggers and even senior Liberals like Nick Minchin, formed to demand that Labor ban all mining in Arkaroola.

In March 2008, the first of a series of anti-Marathon rallies was held at the PayDirt Annual Uranium Conference. A leaflet observed in relation to CITIC’s investment in Marathon that “The Chinese paid a heavy price for their own liberation from imperialism, and should not now start playing the part of a superpower that rides roughshod over the feelings of the Australian people.”

More rallies were held on the occasions of Marathon AGMs, and several attempts were made by the Greens to introduce legislation in the State Parliament to protect Arkaroola. However, the Labor Government showed little interest in the issue and voted down the Greens’ bills.

In 2010, the SA President of the Australia-China Friendship Society wrote to Chen Zeng, head of CITIC and a Director of Marathon, noting that whilst Australians appreciated the generosity of the Chinese Government in loaning two pandas to the Adelaide Zoo, they were not in favour of mining uranium in a wilderness sanctuary that was essential to the survival of the endangered yellow-footed rock wallaby, and asked that the Chinese divest from the project.

A significant addition to the arguments around protecting country was the granting of a Ph.D to Adnyamathanha woman Dr Jillian Marsh for her study of the decision-making protocols for the Beverley Uranium mine out on the flats to the east of Arkaroola, and also on Adnyamathanha land. Her thesis drew attention to shortcomings in Native Title legislation that favoured miners over traditional owners and that muddied the waters around who was entitled to speak for country.

In February 2011, four Adnyamathanha women (left) came out in public to demand that there be “no mining in any form, no exploration in any form”.

Labor backflip

In a surprising and unexpected backflip, Premier Mike Rann announced on July 22 that Arkaroola would be protected for all time from mining by special legislation, and that it would be nominated for inclusion in the National and World Heritage lists.

Rann’s popularity, which once stood at 94%, is at an all-time low of only 30%. This follows the deplorable 2010 State Budget that attacked public sector services and conditions. He had overseen the re-badging of SA Labor as “pro-business, pro-growth and pro-mining” and had developed an incestuous relationship with property developers and other big-end-of-town financial backers. Obviously alienated from Labor’s traditional support base, and with SA Unions demanding that he step down, Rann felt sure that his track record of serving the interests of the miners could withstand any fall-out from denying Marathon access to Arkaroola. He needed a popularity boost and with 73% of South Australians wanting a ban on mining in Arkaroola, he was finally moved to cut Marathon adrift.

Despite the politics behind the decision, the protection of Arkaroola is a massive win for the Adnyamathanha, for citizens wanting to protect an iconic area for the enjoyment of future generations and a defeat for the money-grubbing shareholders of Marathon Resources.

The fight is not completely over. Dr Marsh says there are two remaining issues.

Firstly, the decision still ignores the requirements of the Aboriginal Heritage Act, which she says should take precedence over Native Title. And secondly, Arkaroola should be connected to questions related to the Beverley, Four Mile, Paralana and other sites of interests to miners.

“For the elders, they are the same, they are one, they are connected,” she says.