Protesters want the Northern Territory government to consider the interests of Aboriginal people when allocating water resources.
Indigenous people worry that water from aquifers will be fully allocated to pastoralists and other users, robbing them of an opportunity to develop their land.
"The Strategic Indigenous Reserve is a tool by which we can lift Aboriginal people out of poverty ... into the mainstream economy," Joe Morrison, CEO of the Northern Land Council, told protesters outside Parliament House in Darwin.
In the NT, where one third of the population own half of the land mass and have rights and interests in the remainder, "we find it unbelievable that this territory government is still ignoring the interests of Aboriginal people", he said.
On Monday, lawyers for the Minister for Land Resource Management faced the Environment Centre NT (ECNT) in the Supreme Court to determine whether Minister Willem Westra van Holthe properly reviewed its objections to 18 water licences granted for two aquifers.
The ECNT is unhappy with what it calls unfair and inequitable volumes of water allocated, including 21.5 gigalitres from the Oolloo Dolostone aquifer to Tropical Forestry Services to farm sandalwood, making up one third of total allocations.
It says Water Controller Rod Applegate, who is also CEO of the Department of Land Resource Management, has issued licences outside the previously established water allocation guidelines, increasing the total from the Oolloo from 60 to 68 gigalitres.
The ECNT is also concerned that mining and petroleum companies are exempt from holding a licence, and is calling on the NT government to release its figures showing how much water is set aside for their activities and where it will come from.
Over-extraction could decrease fish stocks such as barramundi and prawns, it says, and further endanger species such as the pig-nosed turtle, the Mertens' water monitor and the large-toothed sawfish.
The ECNT has accused the government of risking water resources and threatening the health of the NT's rivers "by ignoring water planning processes established under the National Water Initiative, and failing to make its decisions in accordance with the best available science or community aspirations".
The hearing continues.
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