A report from Reputex, released today, calculating the costs of the Morrison government’s plans to develop new fracking fields in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin, presents even more reasons to say no to fracking, say Beetaloo Traditional Owners and representatives of the Nurrdalinji Native Title Aboriginal Corporation working to protect the Beetaloo from fracking.
The Reputex Report can be downloaded here.
Native title holder, Djingili elder and Nurrdalinji Deputy Chairman Samuel Janama Sandy, currently living in Katherine said, “It’s getting hotter here and the droughts are getting worse on country. We don’t need more gas fracking, which will make day to day life even harder for our mob.
“To stay strong, we need healthy land and healthy water. Big companies like Origin, who are fracking on my land, are stealing our future and destroying what we want to preserve”.
Djingili elder and Nurrdalinji member Janet Gregory, now living in Alice Springs said,
“Aboriginal people have great responsibilities towards the health of our lands. Protecting country is an essential practice of our culture, lore and life. Fracking is detrimental to the very existence of animals and birds that call the Beetaloo Basin area their home.
“The mess left by big gas companies, who are only interested in money, will stay with us forever. Our very lives depend on water and the poison of our water by fracking is creating genocide.
“Fracking will unbalance the natural cycle of our climate and this damage will be irreversible. We haven't even harnessed the greatest source of energy in our universe yet, the sun, which is not only free but powerful and immovable”.
Alawa woman and Nurrdalinji Director Gillian Limmen from Minyerri, south east of Katherine, said, “We want no fracking in our community. We have to protect our drinking water and our land from fracking, to keep it safe. Water and land is who we are.”
Background
The Nurrdalinji Native Title Aboriginal Corporation includes native title holders from the Amungee Mungee, Beetaloo, Hayfield, Kalala, Newcastle Waters - Murranji, Nutwood Downs, Shenandoah, Tandyidgee, Tanumbirini, Daly Waters Township, Ucharonidge native title determinations.
The Beetaloo sub-basin is located around 500 kilometres south-east of Darwin. It embraces Aboriginal land, pastoral leases (which co-exist with Native Title rights and interests), horticultural enterprises, cattle stations and remote Aboriginal communities. A number of companies are currently undertaking fracked gas drilling in the region, with most of the NT covered by exploration permits.