Traditional Owners have overcome the first hurdle to force the Queensland Government to protect an important sacred site, safeguard cultural heritage and defend human rights.
Nagana Yarrbayn Senior Cultural Custodian Adrian Burragubba is leading the case to protect the Doongmabulla Springs, alleging they have suffered unauthorised environmental harm due to activity from Adani's (Bravus Mining and Resources in Australia) Carmichael coalmine.
"I was out there with my ancestors and I realised I brought that energy here," Mr Burragubba said outside the court in Brisbane on Friday.
"Unfortunately, they can't face that energy, because it's the truth. The truth is that the Carmichael mine is destroying the sacred site.
"It's special for us ... it's special for everybody. It's of national significance, and this is why there's an urgency in having an environmental protection order placed upon the open-cut mine."
'The Government failed us'
Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan & Jagalingou Cultural Custodians launched the court action in February last year.
They claim that the Department of Environment, Tourism and Science’s failure to protect the Doongmabulla Springs from unauthorised environmental harm was unlawful under the Queensland Environmental Protection Act.
They also allege that the ensuing impact on their cultural rights and obligations contravenes the state's Human Rights Act.
The department applied to have the case dismissed, but on Friday Justice Martin Burns ruled that it could proceed.
"The Government failed us by having to get to this point," Mr Burragubba said.
"We're taking this forward for Doongmabulla Springs."
Mr Burragubba says the state environment department, when it decided to take no action in response to his complaint, was aware of the threat to the springs from open-cut mining and the unreliability of Adani's modelling predictions.
By failing to stop contamination and other harm to their sacred site and its waters, Mr Burragubba believes the government is breaching human rights.
In March 2023, the department issued Adani an Environmental Protection Order preventing it from underground mining until it had submitted a second groundwater model review report, which the mining company is fighting in a separate action in the Planning and Environment Court.
Adani was required to provide new modelling after the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia raised concerns.
Cultural custodians wanted to prevent any further open-cut mining until they could be satisfied there was no longer a threat of environmental harm to the springs, Mr Burragubba said.
The custodians have commissioned their own environmental reports, which identified problems with ground and spring water quality.
When the Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan & Jagalingou Cultural Custodians launched their court action in February last year, Bravus said in a statement that the case makes 'widely inaccurate claims' about the company's program to 'study and protect groundwater in and around the Carmichael mine and at the Doongmabulla Springs complex'.
Bravus claims that evidence of hydrocarbons (organic compounds that are the building blocks of many fuels, including natural gas, oil and coal) in water samples have 'not been caused by mining operations' but were 'found to be localised to casing materials for water sampling wells'.
A Bravus spokesperson said in a statement to NITV that there have been ‘no exceedances or breaches of our groundwater conditions’ and that the Doongmabulla Springs complex was ‘not at risk’ from the Carmichael mine now or in the future.
“Further, the department has previously confirmed publicly that there was no evidence of any harm to the Doongmabulla Springs complex from Bravus Mining and Resources' current open cut mining operations,” the spokesperson said.
'State of emergency'
The Nagana Yarrbayn cultural custodians say they have identified an imminent threat of major irreversible harm to the springs and their associated cultural values, which are at the heart of their laws, customs, identity and rights as First Nations people.
"This is a state of emergency for us as the custodians of this place," Mr Burragubba said.
"We are entrusted to look after the Springs – a sacred place in our homelands.
"Our case has always been about the failure of the State to act.
"The Environment Minister doesn't have to wait for a decision from the court, he can act to protect the springs now."
Mr Burragubba said they had taken court action to force the department to enforce the act in accordance with the mine’s Environmental Authority and the Queensland Human Rights Act.
"The Government refused to act even though we presented them with independent expert reports from Griffith University's head of civil and environmental engineering, Professor Matthew Currell, and Flinders University Professor Adrian Werner, as well as the Government’s own commissioned report from CSIRO and Geosciences Australia," he said.
"We shouldn’t have to carry the burden of enforcing the state's own environmental protection laws and holding the department and Adani to account," he said.
"We still have a legal fight ahead of us - this is a public interest matter and it affects ... all of Queensland, all of Australia, and it's all of our business.
"A great win today. This is progress, it's a great thing for us [and] a great thing for the springs."
