Traditional land owners in the Kimberley have agreed to support a liquefied natural gas hub to be built near Broome.
After a week-long meeting the Goolarabooloo-Jabirr Jabirr people decided they would support Woodside's $30 billion LNG gas hub to be built at James Price Point.
Negotiations between the body representing the traditional land owners, the Kimberley Land Council (KLC), and the government broke down in June last year due to a legal challenge.
After negotiations were halted, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett moved to compulsorily acquire the land to ensure the project went ahead.
The Federal Court dismissed the legal challenge by Goolarabooloo man Joseph Roe last month.
The KLC will now finalise the deal with the government, which will see more than $1 billion worth of benefits going towards the traditional owners.
The council had originally signed a heads of agreement in April 2009 with Woodside and the WA government approving the gas hub.
This site - on Goolarabooloo Jabirr Jabirr country - is favoured for its deep waterfront, isolation and proximity to town.
But it's also appreciated by conservationists for very different reasons. They call the Kimberley 'the last frontier'.
'Humpback whales sanctuary'
The Kimberley coast is crucial habitat for the Humpback whale, a protected species in Australia, the Wilderness Society says.
Environmentalists say the Kimberley's clean seas, innumerable islands, coral reefs, mangroves, bays and estuaries are home to an astonishing variety of wildlife including Dugong, five species of turtles, crocodiles, rare Snubfin dolphins and a coral reef network of global significance.
Recent research mapping the world's oceans placed the Kimberley alongside Antarctica as one of the world's least impacted marine environments, the Wilderness Society says.
"This is virtually the same as putting the port of Newcastle on the Great Barrier Reef," Martin Pritchard from Kimberley Environment said.
'Site of cultural significance'
The Kimberley coast also has outstanding cultural values for the region's many Indigenous peoples.
Goolarabooloo law boss Joseph Roe says the gas plant would be built on a site of great cultural significance.
He says the gas plant would cut the Lurujarri songline into two. Songlines are paths across the land -- or, sometimes the sky-- which mark the route followed by localised 'creator-beings' during the Dreaming. The paths of the songlines are recorded in traditional songs, stories, dance, and painting.
"This law and culture, this Dreamtime, has been there from day one. It's older than the tombs in Europe. They were still building Rome when this law been still practised. I'll stand by my law and I'll die by it," Mr Roe told SBS.
'There are better alternatives'
Environmentalists say it would make more sense to process LNG in the Pilbara region, - which already has the established industrial facilities that would suit this kind of development - or using floating LNG technology.
In just a few weeks Environment Minister Tony Burke will decide whether or not to include the Kimberley on the National Heritage List.
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