Noonkanbah has a special place in Australian history
On April 27, 2007 native title was recognised over Noonkanbah cattle station, west of Fitzroy Crossing, in the Kimberley, north Western Australia, scene of a famous land rights protest 27 earlier.
Background
‘It looks like there’s two laws, white man law and Aboriginal law … Now this is the way we are thinking - to pull the white man from the ears to listen to what the Aboriginal Law will say.’ (Dicky Skinner, Noonkanbah 1978)
In Western Australia in 1980, AMAX, a mineral exploration company, encouraged by Sir Charles Court’s Liberal state government, attempted to drill for oil on an important religious site at Noonkanbah cattle station in the Kimberley. Noonkanbah had recently been granted as leasehold to the Yungngora Community by the Commonwealth government and the community strongly resisted attempts to drill in areas sacred to them.
Noonkanbah station made front-page news in 1980 when Aboriginal people and non Aboriginal people from all over Australia rallied to prevent a petroleum company drilling in the area of a sacred site.
Despite their efforts, the drilling was only delayed. It went ahead with the state government bringing in non-union labour, and a convoy of drilling equipment, ‘protected’ by a large police presence, to break through the community barricade.
Essentially Noonkanbah was a conflict between ways of seeing and using land - Aboriginal law and religion versus the European notion of property law and exploitation of resources.
The Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Fred Chaney was openly critical of the Western Australian government for insisting that minerals exploration prevail over Indigenous land owners’ wishes. However, the Noonkanbah dispute demonstrated to advocates of land rights that the Commonwealth was not willing to challenge ‘States rights’ over land use.
The Noonkanbah protest, that pre-dated the Mabo and Wik decisions, symbolised the struggle for recognition of land rights.
Latest
In August 2007 Dickey Cox signed an agreement which will allow ARC Energy to drill for oil and gas at Noonkanbah. But unlike the events of 1980, the agreement is about a partnership between the miners and the native title holders, one that promises to bring jobs and training for young people and much needed income for the community. And unlike 1980, this time important Aboriginal places will be respected.
For further information:
Noonkanbah: Whose Land, Whose Law
by: Stephen Hawke
Pub’d: 1989
ISBN: 0949206555
