A potential mine site in Australia’s Northern Territory is in trouble with the traditional land owners. The massive iron ore deposit in the Gulf of Carpentaria is now the site of a controversy. Miners want to run a slurry line to Maria Island and the indigenous Aboriginal community say that the land is a deeply sacred place that hosts a poison tee that will kill them.
The Marra indigenous group believes that at Maria Island the ‘Kangaroo Dreaming’ travelled from the central desert before reaching its final resting place. The poisonous Sheoak tree (Allocasuarina) is one that should never be disturbed.
Community traditional elder Clarry Rogers said that they were not anti-mining, but were dead against the pipeline to Maria Island. The Western Desert Resources company intended to build the slurry line from a huge iron ore deposit in the Roper Bar region of Northern Territory.
Seventy-three-year-old Betty Roberts said that nobody came and asked them what they intended to do with our land. She added that they would fight and fight and fight as this was their scared place before European time.
The general consensus at the meeting was that Western Desert Resources and Sherwin Iron, another company targeting iron ore deposits in the area, should build a road or rail line 200 kilometres west to join the Alice Springs to Darwin railway line.
There are 16 recorded sacred sites on Maria Island with the Northern Territory Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority. The island is also home to the endangered golden bandicoot and the only place in the country where three types of turtles lay their eggs.