In an historic partnership, one of Australia’s largest landowners, Rallen Australia is uniting with Traditional Owners in opposition to fracking on its Tanumbirini cattle station after controversial gas company Tamboran Resources gave notice it intends to enter Tanumbirini today to begin preparatory activities for fracking, despite not having the pastoralists’ consent. 

ASX-listed Tamboran Resources is set to become the first Beetaloo Basin gas explorer to begin fracking activities on a Northern Territory cattle station without the consent of pastoralists and Aboriginal groups.

Tamboran won the right to access Tanumbirini Station, south of Katherine, in a lengthy tribunal battle that saw the station operator, Rallen Australia, awarded 1000-fold less compensation than it once demanded.

Traditional Owners and one of Australia’s largest landowners are joining forces to take a stand against fracking on Tanumbirini cattle station in the Northern Territory.

One of the Northern Territory’s biggest and wealthiest pastoral landholders will join traditional owners to “resist” the entry of fracking companies on to its expansive holdings in the Beetaloo Basin.

A gas exploration company may use security guards to ensure it can access a remote Northern Territory cattle station protected by pastoralists and Indigenous traditional owners. Tamboran Resources subsidiary Sweetpea also said it would take legal action to recover more than $40,000 per day from the station owner, cattle baron Rallen Australia, and any person that "aids" it if its fracking operations are delayed.

When Gudanji-Wambaya man Johnny Wilson learnt a gas well was being built about 20 kilometres from his ancestral home, he sensed a call to arms.

by Timna Jacks and Justin McManus

Commenting on the news of Chief Minister Gunner’s resignation, Traditional Owners from the Beetaloo region have called for a new direction from the NT government which embraces clean energy, not fracking, to help create jobs and secure energy security.

Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation presents at Darwin hearing of Senate Inquiry into gas exploration in the Beetaloo. Comments on Taylor's budget announcement today of $50.3M for 7 new gas projects, including Beetaloo pipeline study.

Karl and Bobbie Roth are not the only residents of Larrimah who say that it is dying. "All the old houses are falling down, nobody wants them, and our population … we're all in our 70s and 80s," Mr Roth said.

Announcement by Minister Keith Pitt that he has reissued a grant of $19.4m to Imperial Oil & Gas to pursue fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, following a Federal Court ruling in December 2021 that Minister Pitt’s original decision to make the grant under the Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Program was invalid because of ongoing court action.

The chief executive of Australia's peak body for the oil and gas industry says no fracking will occur in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin without consent from affected traditional owners or pastoralists. 

Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation presents at Darwin hearing of Senate Inquiry into gas exploration in the Beetaloo. Comments on Taylor's budget announcement today of $50.3M for 7 new gas projects, including Beetaloo pipeline study.

Commenting on the Morrison government’s latest grant of $7.5M for fracking exploration in the NT’s Beetaloo Basin, Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation has called for a pause on all exploration and approvals until proper consultation occurs with Traditional Owners and the cumulative risks of fracking for water, sacred sites and native animals are better understood.

Commenting on the Morrison government’s latest grant of $7.5M for fracking exploration in the NT’s Beetaloo Basin, Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation has called for a pause on all exploration and approvals until proper consultation occurs with Traditional Owners and the cumulative risks of fracking for water, sacred sites and native animals are better understood.