Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan & Jagalingou Cultural Custodians 

Media Release 

15 July 2024

Nagana Yarrbayn senior cultural custodian, Adrian Burragubba

The Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan and Jagalingou Cultural Custodians have written to the Federal Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, with an urgent request for enforcement and reconsideration of the 2015 federal environmental approval for the Adani Carmichael Mine.

The Nagana Yarrbayn Cultural Custodians hold Indigenous traditional knowledge, cultural authority, and obligations to protect their sacred Doongmabulla Springs. The best available science now shows that current mining operations are threatening the Springs, in breach of the conditions of the state and federal approvals.

The Cultural Custodians, who have taken the Queensland Government to the Supreme Court for its refusal to act to enforce the State environmental conditions and protect the Doongmabulla Springs, have highlighted the urgent need for federal intervention.

The request seeks enforcement of the conditions of the federal approval and asks Minister Plibersek to injunct the mine activities until it can be unequivocally shown that further mining will not imperil the Springs. It also asks Minister Plibersek to suspend or revoke Adani’s environmental approval because of the significant new scientific information about the impacts of the mine and Adani’s breaches of its conditions.

Nagana Yarrbayn Senior Cultural Custodian, Adrian Burragubba, says: “The Doongmabulla Springs are a vital and ancient source of water, significant to sustainability of our people and our ancestor dreaming in the arid Desert Uplands, since time immemorial.Located on Jagalingou Country, the Doongmabulla Springs are sacred to us and central to our cultural beliefs and spiritual practices. Our people have obligations to care for Country, including the Springs. Our practices derive authority from our First Law—the laws and customs handed to us by our ancestors”.

The Doongmabulla Springs are also mapped as a nationally important wetland and support a “community of native species dependent on natural discharge of groundwater from the Great Artesian Basin” which is listed as an endangered Threatened Ecological Community under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The Doongmabulla Springs are therefore a Matter of National Environmental Significance.

In 2015 the then federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, issued an approval under the EPBC Act to Adani, on the basis the Springs would not be impacted by mining activities.

But the latest scientific reports by independent experts and the CSIRO and Geosciences Australia have shown that there are significant breaches regarding the approval. Analysis provided to Minister Plibersek shows that Adani is in breach because their baseline surveys prior to mining activities were not sufficient to monitor potential impacts on the Springs; the early warning water level threshold at the Springs is being regularly exceeded; and the groundwater modeling done by the mining company is not ‘fit for purpose’ to explain or predict impacts on the Springs.

The cultural custodians also invited Minister Plibersek to meet them on Country so they can properly convey the cultural importance of the lands and waters to her and have requested she seek further advice from CSIRO on the compliance with the conditions of the approval with respect to the Springs.

Mr Burragubba says: “As Australia’s Environment Minister, Ms Plibersek has subsumed under Australian law our responsibilities as the Cultural Custodians, and is now regarded as ‘a senior law holder’ for the Doongmabulla Springs. Her next decision will determine whether the ancient story of these springs will be sung by future generations of the First Nations descendants, and they will be protected for the benefit of the Australian people at large; or whether the song will be broken by the destructive and unauthorised impacts of the Carmichael coal mine”.

Proceedings in Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan & Jagalingou Cultural Custodians -V- Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI) continue in the Queensland Supreme Court and the parties are awaiting a decision on the State’s strike out application.

Mr Burragubba, the Nagana Yarrbayn Senior Cultural Custodian who is leading the case for the W&J Cultural Custodians, says he asked the Queensland Environment Minister and the Department to prevent any further open cut mining activity at the Carmichael mine due to the alarming incidence of groundwater contamination and excessive drawdown. He says the Government refused to act even though they were presented with independent expert reports from two eminent water scientists about harm being caused to the Springs.

He says the Government ignored the evidence 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. 

The CSIRO and Geosciences Australia report from April 2023 was withheld by the Queensland Government but was uncovered in other Court proceedings. The report shows that the Carmichael Mine is not complying with the groundwater conditions in its Environmental Authority. It also identifies significant issues with the groundwater modelling, finding that it is not fit for the purpose of predicting groundwater impacts.

The letter, analysis and scientific reports are here. 

Images are available here.

Available for comment:

Adrian Burragubba – Senior W&J Cultural Custodian and Nagana Yarrbayn spokesperson

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For more information and to arrange interviews: Anthony Esposito – NYWJCC adviser – 0418 152 743