Adani opposition plans court
Traditional owners say they will use every legal option to argue that Adani’s Carmichael coal mine poses ‘alarming’ risk to sacred wetlands.
Mine opponents from the Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) people say they will take their fight all the way to The Hague.
Reporters have been invited to visit the Doongmabulla springs - one of the world's last unspoiled desert oases.
Adani has been trying to convince the Queensland Government it can safeguard the springs, but traditional owners could slow progress by taking the Indian mining giant to the High Court.
Adrian Burragubba, a spokesperson for traditional owners who oppose the mine, said the risk to the springs were “alarming to us and anybody that comes to this beautiful place”.
“As you can see, our surroundings here, it's in its natural form — this is nature at its best,” Mr Burragubba told the ABC.
“There's so much to gain from this place.”
Scientific reports have warned that the mine could cause the springs to dry up, something Mr Burragubba said would be “devastating” for his people.
“It's significant to our people because this is the only source of water in our country that is eternal and continues to be alive and give life,” Mr Burragubba said.
“So it's essential to us to protect this place, because it is our dreaming, it's our past, it's our present … and it's our future.
“Without the emus, without the eels, without the trees — some specific trees are our totem trees — they would cease to exist and we would have no map to our past.
“There would be no bible, no doctrine, nothing to refer back to our law.”
He said elders who oppose the mine, “don't trust any government basically”.
“So yes, we may have to go to the High Court, and if not, we would have to travel to The Hague, to the international courts,” Mr Burragubba said.
“As far as I'm concerned, [the mine] is a pie in the sky, by and by — there's no question that we will win — we've come this far.”