tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/james-price-point-3382/articlesJames Price Point – The Conversation2017-03-09T19:22:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/732032017-03-09T19:22:41Z2017-03-09T19:22:41ZWhy ‘green-black’ alliances are less simple than they seem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160118/original/image-20170309-21039-sbcivl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Certain traditional owners and conservation groups allied to stand against a planned gas hub in Western Australia's Kimberley region.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Tim Gentles</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Australia and across the world, Indigenous people are resisting developments that threaten their lands. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/07/indigenous-owners-threaten-legal-action-unless-adani-abandons-land-access-deal">Wangan and Jagalingou</a> people stand in opposition to the planned Carmichael coalmine in Queensland, while the Sioux people are holding firm in their struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline at <a href="https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1010-standing-rock-nodapl-and-mni-wiconi">Standing Rock</a>. </p>
<p>As these contests intensify, they reveal that Indigenous peoples often have limited say over what happens on their country. When pitted against powerful state and corporate actors, Indigenous people may seek assistance from others, such as environmentalists, to protect their interests and further their aspirations. </p>
<p>In Australia, these arrangements have sometimes been called “green-black alliances”. However, as we argue in our new book <a href="http://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/unstable-relations-indigenous-people-and-environmentalism-in-contemporary-australia">Unstable Relations</a>, it is misleading to contend that Indigenous people and environmentalists necessarily share (or don’t share) the same ends and motives. </p>
<p>They are neither natural allies nor enemies. Instead, we suggest, close attention to the past and present of “green-black” meetings in Australia reveals that their relationships are surprisingly unstable, and are shaped by shifting legal and social contexts. </p>
<p>To understand how and why these collaborations occur, and how and why they can fall apart, we need a better comprehension of the particular processes and people involved, rather than treating them all as uniform.</p>
<h2>Understanding land rights today</h2>
<p>Since 1966, governments in Australia have progressively recognised different forms of Indigenous land rights. Perhaps the most well known is “native title”, which was first recognised in the High Court’s 1992 <a href="https://theconversation.com/advocates-or-activists-what-can-lawyers-learn-from-mabo-7443">Mabo decision</a>. </p>
<p>Native title applies only to Crown lands and pastoral leases, only authorises limited land use rights, and is proven through condescending tests of cultural “continuity”. Because of the history of colonial dispossession, some groups fail to meet these tests; others refuse to do so. These problems notwithstanding, multiple forms of Indigenous land rights together cover more than a third of the continent, much of it in remote Australia.</p>
<p>As we have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/05/adani-mine-leases-and-national-parks-in-doubt-after-native-title-court-decision">recently seen</a>, mining companies and others often greet changes to land rights regimes with dire warnings about economic impacts. The “Mabo madness” of the 1990s proved overblown. By and large, Australia’s various land rights regimes have been highly accommodating to miners and mineral extraction. </p>
<p>In violation of United Nations principles, Australia’s native title laws do not recognise Indigenous peoples’ rights to consent over what happens on their country. Rather, they simply allow a right to be consulted for six months. This gives rise to contractual agreements, such as Indigenous Land Use Agreements, which effectively grant mining companies and others a “social licence to operate” in exchange for a mixture of cash and in-kind benefits.</p>
<p>Indigenous academic <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/boyerlectures/series/2012-boyer-lectures/4305696">Marcia Langton</a> and others have argued that this era of “agreement-making” has the potential to lift Indigenous people in remote areas out of poverty. According to this argument, environmental groups that raise concerns about industrial activity do so at Indigenous peoples’ expense. </p>
<p>A simplified version of this story is often found in the mainstream media, casting environmentalists as out-of-touch urbanites and portraying Indigenous groups who work with them as dupes or somehow <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/02/the-biggest-threat-to-culture-is-not-an-lng-plant-the-real-battle-for-james-price-point">illegitimate</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, many Australians seem to accept that extractive developments are both inevitable and beneficial, despite complex <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/centre-aboriginal-economic-policy-research-caepr/my-country-mine-country">evidence</a> to the contrary. </p>
<p>The alternative view is the one depicted in this painting by Garawa artist <a href="http://www.waralungku.com/artists/jacky-green">Jacky Green</a>, in which a road train covered with dollar signs represents “the wealth being taken away from us, from our country”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158660/original/image-20170228-29945-1y1jh1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Money moving over Aboriginal heads.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jacky Green, 2012/Private Collection</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Unstable relations</h2>
<p>The anthropological and historical research presented in our book highlights that, far from being manipulated, Indigenous people who are opposed to a particular development often seek to enter into strategic partnerships with environmentalists. Crucially, these are not inevitable alliances but negotiated collaborations, which can run into problems if circumstances change.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wild-rivers-act-controversy-5663">controversy</a> that erupted in recent years over Queensland’s Wild Rivers Act was shaped by collaborative relationships established between the Australian Conservation Foundation, The Wilderness Society, and Cape York Land Council and its former chairman Noel Pearson decades earlier. Whereas these groups had formalised an alliance in the mid-1990s, which successfully lobbied for land rights and the return of country to traditional owners in Cape York, they <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00049182.2011.546319">split</a> in the late 2000s over how to regulate planning on that country. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, while a public controversy raged, together these groups continued to privately negotiate further outcomes over jointly managed national parks. </p>
<p>Another quite different example is the campaign against a major liquid-gas processing plant and port at Walmadany (<a href="https://theconversation.com/james-price-point-environmental-significance-ignored-in-failed-impact-assessment-8817">James Price Point</a>) in Western Australia. The ethnographer <a href="http://www.rowmaninternational.com/books/the-mothers-day-protest-and-other-fictocritical-essays">Stephen Muecke</a> has characterised the relationship between those Goolarabooloo people who sought to halt the project and their green supporters as the most successful such collaboration in Australia’s history. </p>
<p>This was based on long-term personal relationships between some of those involved and, crucially, the media and <a href="https://theconversation.com/james-price-point-environmental-significance-ignored-in-failed-impact-assessment-8817">scientific resources</a> that environmentalists were able to bring to the campaign. “Citizen scientists” took their cue from Goolarabooloo people’s firsthand knowledge of local environs, conducting highly successful surveys of turtle nests and bilbies.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/unstable-relations-indigenous-people-and-environmentalism-in-contemporary-australia">our book</a>, we and other contributors point to many other productive but nonetheless unstable relationships in South Australia, the Northern Territory, Victoria and elsewhere.</p>
<h2>The ‘green-black’ future</h2>
<p>Environmentalists often seem oblivious to the contractual landscape in which they are acting. They mistake their relationships with particular Indigenous groups as a natural alliance, based on received ideas of Indigenous connection to country.</p>
<p>But as Yorta Yorta activist Monica Morgan has pointed out, Indigenous people have a holistic relationship with their country, which doesn’t always fit with the specific goals of environmentalists. When green groups assume that Indigenous peoples’ “traditional culture” is necessarily conservationist, this can lead them to denigrate Indigenous people who pursue economic opportunities. </p>
<p>Relationships between Indigenous people and environmental interests continue to change. Both are now landholders of significant conservation areas in remote Australia, while Indigenous people are increasingly employed as rangers through state-funded conservation projects. </p>
<p>Again, specific case studies show how these arrangements are far from simple. At the former pastoral property of <a href="http://www.australianwildlife.org/sanctuaries/pungalina-seven-emu-sanctuary.aspx">Pungalina</a> in Queensland’s Gulf Country, Garawa people return to “Emu Dreaming” places now managed by non-Indigenous conservationists. There they negotiate an ambiguous field of responses to their presence, ranging from interest and respect to anxiety. </p>
<p>In Arnhem Land, Kuninjku people express ambivalence about the problem of the environmentally destructive <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/managing-wild-buffalo-in-arnhem-land/7284802">buffalo</a> in an Indigenous Protected Area. The buffalo are simultaneously recognised as companions, an environmental problem, and a crucial source of meat in hungry times.</p>
<p>As long as Indigenous people have limited capacity to decide what happens on their country, and as long as environmentalists continue to oppose destructive developments, their interests will sometimes intersect. However, as these situations arise and alliances form, we should be careful to avoid essentialising or conflating those involved. “Green-black” alliances will certainly be productive at times, but they will always be unstable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73203/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Neale receives funding from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eve Vincent does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Relations between Indigenous peoples and environmentalists can be productive for both parties, but they will always be unstable.Timothy Neale, Research Fellow, Deakin UniversityEve Vincent, Lecturer, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/134962013-04-16T04:33:52Z2013-04-16T04:33:52ZWithout James Price Point, what now for Browse Basin gas?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/22480/original/65w7v8p9-1366073718.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite anti-gas protests, Woodside pulled out of James Price Point for commercial reasons.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP image/Cortlan Bennett</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last Friday, Woodside <a href="http://www.woodside.com.au/Investors-Media/Announcements/Pages/Woodside-to-Review-Alternative-Browse-Development-Concepts.aspx">announced</a> it would no longer be developing a gas processing plant at James Price Point in Western Australia. The announcement was <a href="http://www.acfonline.org.au/news-media/media-release/acf-welcomes-woodside%E2%80%99s-retreat-james-price-point">greeted with enthusiasm</a> by environmental groups. But this is by no means the death knell for gas development in the Browse Basin.</p>
<p>Peter Coleman, CEO and Managing Director or Woodside, has reinforced the value of the Browse Development and Woodside’s <a href="http://www.woodside.com.au/Investors-Media/Announcements/Pages/Company-Insight---Explains-Delaying-Browse-LNG-Project.aspx">continued commitment</a> to develop resources in the area. </p>
<p>A particular hurdle to development in the Browse Basin is its relative isolation. The majority of development off the shore of north-west Australia is concentrated in the Carnarvon Basin, south-west of the Browse Basin, and in the Bonaparte Basin, north-east of the Browse Basin. Each region has the accumulated experience of many existing platforms and pipelines and operating onshore production facilities. But the Browse Basin is essentially undeveloped.</p>
<p>The Browse Basin covers <a href="http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/1878.aspx">approximately 140,000 km<sup>2</sup></a> - about twice the land area of Tasmania. If it was easy to develop Browse, it would have been done before now: the gas fields were <a href="http://www.woodside.com.au/Pages/default.aspx">discovered in 1971</a>.</p>
<p>Woodside’s <a href="http://www.woodside.com.au/Pages/default.aspx">Browse Basin gas development</a> is big - even by that state’s standards. It has estimated resources of 15.5 trillion cubic feet of <a href="http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/en/Terms.aspx?LookIn=term%20name&filter=dry%20gas">dry gas</a> and 417 million barrels of <a href="http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/en/Terms/c/condensate.aspx">condensate</a>. Developing the reserves was always going to be challenging: it involves three fields (Torosa, Brecknock and Calliance) 425km offshore in water depths of 750m.</p>
<p>The other key project in the Browse Basin is the <a href="http://www.inpex.com.au/projects/ichthys-project/project-overview.aspx">Ichthys Development</a>, on the eastern fringe of the basin, about 200km offshore in relatively shallow water. Gas from Ichthys will travel nearly 900km through a subsea pipeline to an onshore LNG plant in the Northern Territory (following <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-09-26/darwin-chosen-for-multi-billion-dollar-inpex/523164">speculation that the gas may be brought onshore in Western Australia</a>). The project is now in the construction phase, following a Final Investment Decision (FID) in January 2012, and is due for first gas in 2017.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.shell.com.au/home/content/aus/aboutshell/who_we_are/shell_au/operations/upstream/prelude/">Prelude Development</a>, operated by Shell, is also located in the Browse Basin. It is due to produce first gas in 2016-2017. In contrast to the Browse JPP solution and the Ichthys Development, Prelude requires no onshore processing or long pipeline to shore due to the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/floating-lng-an-alternative-future-for-gas-11137">floating</a>” technology that will be used so it is relatively unaffected by isolation issues. </p>
<p>The table below compares some of the major projects off the shore of north-west Australia, providing some perspective to the positioning of the Browse Development in the current mix of development projects.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/22500/original/f4fg6qm7-1366079794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/22500/original/f4fg6qm7-1366079794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/22500/original/f4fg6qm7-1366079794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/22500/original/f4fg6qm7-1366079794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/22500/original/f4fg6qm7-1366079794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/22500/original/f4fg6qm7-1366079794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/22500/original/f4fg6qm7-1366079794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/22500/original/f4fg6qm7-1366079794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.woodside.com.au/Investors-Media/Announcements/Pages/Woodside-to-Review-Alternative-Browse-Development-Concepts.aspx">Woodside’s decision</a> to rethink the initial Browse Development concept ended months of speculation about the project’s feasibility. The initial concept, developed in 2009, involved floating <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tension-leg_platform">tension leg platforms</a> at the deepwater locations. These would be tied back to a central processing facility closer to shore in shallower water, with a 350km trunkline to an onshore processing plant at James Price Point.</p>
<p>Since the initial concept was selected, costs and technology have changed. This will affect the options on the table when Woodside and the joint venture partners work out the alternative strategy for developing Browse. </p>
<p>At this point alternative concepts may include a pipeline to existing facilities in the Pilbarra, a smaller on-shore option around James Price Point or floating LNG technology.</p>
<p>Any decision about the development of Browse is going to be complex at many levels - in terms of technology, regulation and balancing needs across the social and environmental spectrum. </p>
<p>In the days since the announcement, the media has featured articles representing the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3736264.htm">pros and cons</a> and <a href="http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/04/12/11/59/james-price-gas-plan-fight-not-over-milne">winners</a> and <a href="http://www.watoday.com.au/comment/browse-delay-is-was-loss-20130413-2hscp.html">losers</a> of the current decision and potential future decisions, underlining the complexity of the situation.</p>
<p>Woodside’s CEO reinforced that the decision was a commercial one and was not influenced by environmental or public policy issues. As a publicly listed company, Woodside’s ultimate responsibility is to its shareholders. </p>
<p>The market viewed the decision positively, with <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/woodsides-browse-works-at-cheaper-price-point/story-fnay3x58-1226620578067">share price increasing following Woodside’s announcement</a>.</p>
<p>But it is simplistic to believe development of WA’s offshore reserves benefits only the oil and gas company shareholders.</p>
<p>On the 25th anniversary of the North West Shelf Venture, Martin Ferguson, then Federal Resources Minister <a href="http://minister.ret.gov.au/MediaCentre/Speeches/Pages/25YearsofNorthWestShelfEnergyCommemoration.aspx">told parliament</a> it is </p>
<blockquote>
<p>an economic and engineering feat of the same national significance as the Snowy Mountains hydro scheme. The project adds 0.7% to Australia’s gross domestic product and 5% to Western Australia’s gross state product.</p>
<p>The North West Shelf Project has not only spawned a thriving WA oil and gas sector. It has driven the application of cutting edge technologies and has led to the emergence of a world class petroleum services hub in Perth. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many oil and gas services providers now have expanded and diversified into new markets and technologies. This diversification and growth is driving a broadening and deepening of the Western Australian economy. </p>
<p>The skills and technologies developed by this project and its suppliers continue to underpin new and planned oil and gas developments. More fundamentally - gas from the Venture has provided energy to fuel WA’s minerals boom and industrial sectors and 20 years of LNG exports.</p>
<p>Technical expertise during development of the North West Shelf Venture was mostly brought in from overseas. In the subsequent 30 years, WA engineers have provided significant input into local projects and exported expertise to global projects. </p>
<p>Perth is growing into a world-recognised engineering centre of excellence. Woodside, Chevron and Shell have all sponsored industry Chairs at the University of Western Australia, fostering large research groups in the areas of offshore engineering, geophysics and gas processing. </p>
<p>Beyond Browse, the expertise and experience growing in Perth will contribute to a long term vision of WA having the same global status as other “go to” hubs of oil and gas engineering excellence, like Houston, Oslo or Aberdeen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/13496/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Gourvenec works for a research centre that receives funding from the State and Federal governments as well from as a range of oil and gas operators and contractors through joint research projects or contract testing. Susan works part-time for a geotechnical consultancy whose clients include a range of oil and gas operators and contractors.
</span></em></p>Last Friday, Woodside announced it would no longer be developing a gas processing plant at James Price Point in Western Australia. The announcement was greeted with enthusiasm by environmental groups…Susan Gourvenec, Professor, Offshore Geomechanics, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/112562012-12-11T19:17:00Z2012-12-11T19:17:00ZMarcia Langton’s ‘quiet revolution’ and what you don’t hear about James Price Point<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18553/original/jr73qsnj-1355196962.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Successful negotiations at James Price Point have been drowned out by the voices of protest.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Cortlan Bennett</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Professor Marcia Langton opened this year’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/boyerlectures/">Boyer Lectures</a> with an observation that William Stanner’s 1968 Boyer Lectures had “given credence, perhaps inadvertently” to the idea that Aboriginal people could not lead a modern economic life. </p>
<p>Her central theme, that participation in the modern economy is essential to strong Indigenous communities, and that Indigenous people are riding the resource boom to the middle classes, is probably news to many people used to tales of multinational resource companies running roughshod over Indigenous groups. Langton calls it the “quiet revolution”.</p>
<p>I believe that an example of this quiet revolution can be seen taking place in northern Western Australia. But it is barely registering a whisper in the national press, drowned out by two deafening and opposing voices: the chants of a national environmental campaign versus the siren call of resource development. </p>
<p>I speak of the three <a href="http://www.dsd.wa.gov.au/8416.aspx">agreements</a> reached between the Goolarabooloo Jabirr Jabirr registered native title claimants, the state of Western Australia and Woodside Petroleum to process gas from the Browse Basin at an LNG Precinct at James Price Point. </p>
<p>The contents of these agreements have been largely unnoticed amid the clamour of the anti-gas campaign, and the intra-Indigenous dispute about whether or not to sign them. But these agreements are far better than those most Traditional Owners are negotiating in Australia, and contain better compensation than Traditional Owners are entitled to under compulsory acquisition provisions. It’s therefore worth examining them and asking how they came to be.</p>
<p>A starting point is the law governing negotiations between Traditional Owners and resource companies, widely acknowledged to create an uneven playing field. </p>
<p>First, almost no land owners in Australia own the minerals that are beneath the surface of their land, including native title holders, whose ownership of minerals <a href="http://www.atns.net.au/agreement.asp?EntityID=782">was extinguished</a> by legislation vesting mineral ownership in the Crown. In addition, no individual or community group, with perhaps the exception of those holding Aboriginal Land Rights Act land, have the legal right to stop mining activities going ahead on their land.</p>
<p>When mining or petroleum companies want to access native title land, they must follow the procedures set out in the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/nta1993147/">Native Title Act</a>. This says that the native title party has the “right to negotiate” an agreement with the resource company. That’s not a right to stop the development, nor the right to reach an agreement, just the right to negotiate. It is better than what was there previously – limited rights under Aboriginal heritage legislation – but there is still plenty that is disempowering about these “right to negotiate” provisions.</p>
<p>So, with this legislative backdrop, how do native title parties ever get a good deal? Langton gave us some answers to this question in her lectures, including the advent of the requirement that mining companies obtain a “social licence to operate”. And yet, Traditional Owner groups all around Australia still get steamrolled, and are still forced to accept inadequate compensation. </p>
<p>As the former ATSIC deputy chair <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-23/indigenous-leaders-threaten-court-action-over-land-use/2851202/?site=brisbane">Ray Robinson said</a>, Indigenous landowners are sometimes still “ripped off by mining companies … [who] are getting billions and billions of dollars and they are offering Indigenous people a pittance”.</p>
<p>In contrast, and whatever you might think of the proposed LNG Precinct, the agreements are worth a lot of money. They are also comprehensive agreements, and include significant grants of freehold land, as well as employment, training, environmental and cultural protections. They contain very substantial regional benefits for all Kimberley Aboriginal people in areas such as education, health and housing. </p>
<p>Most intriguingly, they bind the state, through an Act of Parliament, not to process LNG anywhere else on the Kimberley coastline. How did this come to pass, given the sometimes skewed results of the Native Title Act, as well as the threat of compulsory acquisition?</p>
<p>Certainly, the project lent itself to a good deal: it is the first large industrial project proposed for the Kimberley coastline, and was a priority for successive state governments. It was also a project swamped in rhetorical goodwill towards Traditional Owners – for example, Don Voelte, the former CEO of Woodside, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2010/s2929919.htm">said</a> that for him: “It’s not about the dollars … the point is what are you doing to the community?”</p>
<p>But I would like to suggest another reason behind the success of the Goolarabooloo Jabirr Jabirr, and detour to Stanner’s 1968 Boyer Lectures to provide an explanation. He spoke of the effects of European colonisation on the Indigenous psyche, saying that “a long humiliation can dull the vision, narrow the spirit, and contract the heart towards new things”.</p>
<p>Certainly the history of the Kimberley is full of humiliation, and much worse, for Aboriginal people. But the Kimberley is also full of humiliation’s opposites – pride, success and dignity – and I believe that they have empowered and invigorated Kimberley Traditional Owners.</p>
<p>Kimberley successes include the fact that large areas of the Kimberley are now back in Indigenous hands. The first <a href="http://www.atns.net.au/agreement.asp?EntityID=2823">successful native title claim</a> over a town – Broome – was made in the Kimberley.</p>
<p>Culture, language and leadership are strong, held up by what are said to be the three pillars of Kimberley Indigenous life: the Kimberley Land Council, the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre and the Language Resource Centre. </p>
<p>The Kimberley Land Council, formed during the<a href="http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/noonkanbah-the-iconic-fight-for-aboriginal-land-rights.htm"> Noonkanbah dispute</a> (also a dispute about resource extraction on Indigenous land) has been negotiating these sorts of agreements for a long time. Wayne Bergmann, its former CEO, told the National Press Club this year that he believes they are negotiating better agreements in the Kimberley than elsewhere, even without the Native Title Act’s right to negotiate.</p>
<p>Why is this so important? I turn to Stanner again, who noted “the rapidity with which peoples who but a short time ago were powerless, dependent and voiceless found power, independence and voice”. </p>
<p>I believe that the power and voice of Traditional Owners is the “quiet revolution” of the James Price Point controversy. Stanner may have wrongly implied that Indigenous people could not live a modern economic life, but the words of his Boyer Lectures, and Marcia Langton’s, are reflected in the Kimberley today. It’s time we heard more about it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/11256/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Marcia Langton is a Chief Investigator of the ATNS Project. Lily receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Professor Marcia Langton opened this year’s Boyer Lectures with an observation that William Stanner’s 1968 Boyer Lectures had “given credence, perhaps inadvertently” to the idea that Aboriginal people…Lily O'Neill, PhD student and lawyer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/101782012-10-19T21:52:57Z2012-10-19T21:52:57ZBeware the stingray: Indigenous heritage and WA’s gas plans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16602/original/kwbbfyvd-1350430737.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Understanding the stingray's significance can help us understand opposition to James Price Point gas plans.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joy VanBuhler</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>For overwhelming economic, social, cultural and environmental reasons the LNG precinct proposed for Walmadany (James Price Point) should not be built…In sum, such a project is against the national interest.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is what I concluded in my recent report, <a href="http://www.savethekimberley.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Botsman-report-October-2012.pdf">Law Below the Top Soil</a>. But behind my report on the proposed LNG precinct at Walmadany/James Price Point near Broome is a story of what we in the European world might call synchronicity and stingrays.</p>
<p>It was through Professor <a href="http://sam.arts.unsw.edu.au/staff/stephen-muecke-777.html">Stephen Muecke</a> that I first heard about the remarkable <a href="http://www.goolarabooloo.org.au/paddys_story.html">Paddy Roe</a>, OAM, now deceased. Mr Roe collaborated with Stephen on two outstanding and remarkable books, Goolaburu and Reading the Country.</p>
<p>Mr Roe wrote the history of his country - particularly the 80 kilometre stretch of Broome coastline from Bindingankuny in the north to Roebuck Bay Caravan Park in the south - so it could be understood and preserved across cultures and for coming generations.</p>
<p>Little did I know that 30 years after meeting Stephen I would come to know the community and the remarkable country that Mr Roe worked so hard to preserve. </p>
<p>I gained an understanding of the significance of Mr Roe’s work as the National Secretary of the Indigenous Stock Exchange (ISX), where I met many significant national Aboriginal elders and leaders. It threw me into the complex issues around mining, Aboriginal economic development and prosperity.</p>
<p>In Arnhem Land I was adopted into a Yolngu clan group. Two years before I was invited to write Law Below the Top Soil by the old families of Broome, I was sitting with my adopted relatives at Mata Mata, about six hours drive from Nhulunbuy on the Arafura Sea, when I learned about the extraordinary significance of the stingray.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16613/original/jndr4j3f-1350435463.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16613/original/jndr4j3f-1350435463.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16613/original/jndr4j3f-1350435463.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16613/original/jndr4j3f-1350435463.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16613/original/jndr4j3f-1350435463.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16613/original/jndr4j3f-1350435463.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1766&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16613/original/jndr4j3f-1350435463.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16613/original/jndr4j3f-1350435463.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1766&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stingrays are very sacred creatures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bambarrarr Marawili</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My relatives and I had a meal of stingray fit for kings and queens, cooked in a pot, served on corrugated iron, with dogs on hand for the titbits. It was a meal that I will never forget.</p>
<p>Stingrays entered my consciousness in a big way after that meal. I was astounded at the quality and delicacy of the meat, at the meticulous preparation, and at the importance of stingrays for my relatives. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetsuya_Wakuda">Tetsuya Wakuda</a> could not have prepared a dish as delicate or as good for you, as the legendary Mata Mata leader, Batambil, and her sons, prepared that day.</p>
<p>Three months before I was asked to come to Broome to write the report I had an extraordinary experience. One evening I was walking on the beach at Wilsons Promontory, talking about the stingray meal I enjoyed at Mata Mata. I looked down into a rock pool and there was a giant stingray, trapped by the tide and looking up at me. It had an extraordinary face and eyes. It calmly flapped its giant wings, showing its underside, almost presenting itself to me. It was something I will never forget.</p>
<p>One of the things that Batambil said to me as we were eating stingray was: “If the miners want to come and mine my land here. Sure they can. But they will have to put a 303 bullet here”, pointing to her temple, “and my backbone will be buried in this earth. They will have to shoot me and dig up my backbone.”</p>
<p>I then at least partially understood the significance of Aboriginal <a href="http://www.yirrkala.com/theartcentre">land and culture and stingrays</a>.</p>
<p>I re-read Stephen and Paddy’s work Goolaburu: Stories from the West Kimberley. I learned that it was after spearing a fat stingray that Paddy, as a Nyigina man, gained custodianship of the Goolabaroo law of the Walmadany/James Point area. Paddy’s daughter Teresa and her children are the children of the stingray of the Walmadany/James Price area.</p>
<p>Stingray are very sacred creatures. The holes in the floor of the sea bed that you often see in the shallows are made by stingrays. They bite down into the sea and filter the mud for their food. They create clouds in the water; these are related to the cumulo-nimbus clouds that come with the storms of the wet season and cleanse the earth.</p>
<p>Stingrays are serene creatures. They glide through the water. They bury themselves in the sand. They bury themselves below the top soil. </p>
<p>But don’t be fooled by their serenity: sting rays are very dangerous. If you step on them, their poison will cause great pain. And as we know in the case of <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/steve-irwin-killed-by-stingray/2006/09/04/1157222051512.html">Steve Irwin</a>, stingrays can even cause death.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16597/original/pq4c3zgn-1350430471.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16597/original/pq4c3zgn-1350430471.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16597/original/pq4c3zgn-1350430471.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16597/original/pq4c3zgn-1350430471.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16597/original/pq4c3zgn-1350430471.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16597/original/pq4c3zgn-1350430471.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/16597/original/pq4c3zgn-1350430471.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Developing the LNG project disregards Aboriginal customary law.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stingrays symbolise knowledge of the law beneath the top surface of the earth. We may find such thinking poetic, metaphoric and symbolic. But in the Aboriginal traditional knowledge this is a fundamental truth and law that no-one can deny. The way in which Mr Roe and his children and grandchildren came to know the stingray, mean that they were significant leaders who have strong power and knowledge of their country. For they, like the stingray, know of its deep qualities and what is beneath the surface of the land.</p>
<p>Woodside, Premier Barnett and their supporters have messed with the stingrays of Walmadany/James Price Point. Mr Roe, along with many others, had ensured that this site was perhaps the most documented sacred site of the Broome area and perhaps of Australia. </p>
<p>The process through which Barnett and Woodside ended up with this as the site for a giant multi-billion dollar LNG precinct was blundering and foolish and indicative of desperate men. The voluminous documentation of the whole development of the LNG project is an exercise that completely disregards the significant Aboriginal customary law that lies with Mr Roe’s family and their relatives.</p>
<p>Of course, I might also mention that the economics of the project are not sound, that there are other superior alternatives to the LNG precinct for harvesting the reserves of Browse Basin Gas that lie off the Kimberley coast. The environmental, cultural and social effects of the project are undesirable and severe.</p>
<p>But Mr Roe would no doubt have said that all this is obvious: if you mess with stingrays, you end up with poison barbs in your leg.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/10178/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Funding to enable the Law Below the Top Soil report to be produced was received from Save the Kimberley and Broome-based Indigenous organisations. This allowed travel to Broome in 2011 as well as a stipend to allow research of over a thousand documents put forward by Woodside, the State Government and the Kimberley Land Council. The writing up of the research was completed in the latter part of 2011. The author is the voluntary national secretary of the Indigenous Stock Exchange or ISX. The ISX is a voluntary organisation which supports Aboriginal cultural, social and economic enterprises.</span></em></p>For overwhelming economic, social, cultural and environmental reasons the LNG precinct proposed for Walmadany (James Price Point) should not be built…In sum, such a project is against the national interest…Peter Botsman, Principal Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences , The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/80942012-07-11T04:48:46Z2012-07-11T04:48:46ZMining and the environment: the future of Australia’s brand<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12785/original/k23gq365-1341906032.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Quarries and quandaries: Australia's natural splendour is a major source of income, yet it sits uncomfortably with mining's spread.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Fantasea Adventure Cruising</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia has built a strong global brand based on its iconic natural beauty. For example, the new Australia Tourism campaign, <a href="http://www.australia.com/campaigns/nothinglike/au/index.html">“There’s nothing like Australia”</a>, features icons like the Kimberley, Uluru, and the Great Barrier Reef. But on the flip-side, mining is an important part of the Australian economy, representing the third largest sector-share of GDP in 2009-2010 at <a href="http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/556894E44C26469ECA2577CA00139858/$File/52040_2009-10.pdf">8.4%</a>. As the economic importance of mining accelerates, can these two core Australian brands continue to co-exist without impacting one another?</p>
<p>The environmental and social impacts of recent mining proposals have met heated debate. These include two proposals currently under assessment by Environment Minister Tony Burke: <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/wa-minister-delays-epa-report-into-gas-hub/story-fn3dxiwe-1226411552273">James Price Point</a>, and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/alpha-coal-mine-given-list-of-required-improvements-20120615-20ev6.html">Alpha Coal</a>. These cases represent two of Australia’s largest mining exports, LNG and Coal, but also raise serious environmental concerns for key assets: the Kimberley and Great Barrier Reef. While Environment Minister Tony Burke is limited in his decision-making to the relevant legislation, namely the <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/">Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999</a> (EPBC Act), his decisions on these high-profile cases will likely set the tone for environmental policy as it relates to mining proposals in the near future. </p>
<p><strong>Coal and the Great Barrier Reef</strong></p>
<p>The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is a World Heritage site and is an important environmental and economic asset, estimated in 2005 to contribute <a href="http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/5584/gbrmpa_RP84_Measuring_The_Economic_And_Financial_Value_Of_The_GBRMP_2005.pdf">$5.8</a> billion in gross domestic product to Australia. However, the natural values of the GBR are being affected by increased port and shipping activities primarily driven by mining-sector demands. In the wake of the <a href="http://theconversation.com/unescos-great-barrier-reef-report-experts-respond-7435">UNESCO report on the Great Barrier Reef</a>, Minister Burke <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2012/s3518454.htm">halted</a> movement on the Alpha Coal project to properly assess the likely impacts on the reef. This may have implications for similar projects in the Galilee basin including the China First and Kevin’s Corner Projects. The discussion surrounding the Alpha Coal mine will be closely watched by many for an indication on the future of the proposed Galilee basin coal mines. In addition to possible impacts on the GBR, the China First project will wipe out an existing private protected area, <a href="http://bimblebox.org/">Bimblebox Nature Refuge</a>. The open cut coal mine will severely impact the environmental values that have been protected by the Nature Refuge. In addition, mining within private protected areas, such as Queensland’s <a href="http://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/ecosystems/nature-refuges/the_nature_refuges_program.html">Nature Refuges</a>, creates social consequences that could erode the public’s willingness to participate in such programs in the future. These potential social costs are not currently being valued in the decision making process.</p>
<p><strong>James Price Point and potential impacts on the Kimberley</strong></p>
<p>The Kimberley is known for its natural beauty and cultural and biological diversity. <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1094">Purnululu National Park</a> (Bungle Bungle range) is World Heritage listed and the <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/publications/west-kimberley/pubs/west-kimberley-factsheet.pdf">west Kimberley</a> was recently national heritage listed. The north Kimberley is one of two regions in Australia with <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/view/journals/dsp_journal_fulltext.cfm?nid=90&f=ZO08027">no recorded mammal extinctions</a>. However, the proposed James Price Point gas hub now represents a major threat to the pristine natural values of the region. The proposed gas hub will threaten natural values such as the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/05/28/3512658.htm">heritage-listed dinosaur tracksites</a>, plus whales and dolphins as well as endangered species such as sawfish, dugongs, and turtles. Notably, Kimberley coast is an important Humpback whale nursery and the proposed <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/mbp/reserves/pubs/fs-nw-region.pdf">Kimberley marine protected area</a> will provide protection for some of the nursery.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12786/original/dkxrv9cj-1341907038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12786/original/dkxrv9cj-1341907038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12786/original/dkxrv9cj-1341907038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12786/original/dkxrv9cj-1341907038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12786/original/dkxrv9cj-1341907038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12786/original/dkxrv9cj-1341907038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12786/original/dkxrv9cj-1341907038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">James Price Point in Western Australia: the site of a proposed gas hub.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Cortlan Bennett</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Can the impacts from the James Price Point gas hub be avoided?</strong></p>
<p>The James Price Point gas hub differs from other mining proposals in one key way. While many mining proposals are site specific, the gas hub proposed for James Price Point has alternate proposed sites, <a href="http://www.environskimberley.org.au/campaigns/james-price-point-kimberley-ga/">including the Pilbara</a>. Thus, the impacts from the James Price Point gas hub on the natural values of the Kimberley can be avoided. Following the <a href="http://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/documents/biodiversity_offsets.pdf">mitigation hierarchy</a> of avoid, minimise, reduce <em>then</em> offset, the consideration of alternate locations for the gas hub deserves serious attention.</p>
<p>If the James Price Point proposal does move ahead, Woodside <a href="http://www.woodside.com.au/supplying_to_woodside/Documents/Wenvironmentpolicy_Dec2010_.pdf">environmental policy</a> is to minimise impacts and undertake restoration activities where appropriate. Although Woodside has pledged to protect whales, turtles, fish, and water quality in the area, details surrounding the environmental management and financial commitment to these activities have not been released. Projects of this nature are often also accompanied by an environmental offset package. For example, the Inpex’s Ichthys project has committed to voluntary and <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/burke/2011/mr20110628.htmll">required offsets</a>. However, there are a number of species <a href="http://www.anra.gov.au/topics/vegetation/assessment/wa/ibra-northern-kimberley.html">found only in the Kimberley</a>. If any of these species were to be lost an offset simply could not achieve a “no net impact” outcome. </p>
<p><strong>What about the locals?</strong></p>
<p>Many of the proposed mines are in rural areas of Australia where the local landholders have been caretakers of the land for generations. In these rural communities, do the people stand to win or lose from the mines? This question doesn’t have a clear answer. What is clear is that there is a great deal of local discord over these proposals. </p>
<p>For example, James Price Point has attracted significant community protests and an additional 140 police were recently sent to Broome at a cost of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-15/police-presence-at-protest-in-broome-costed/4012778/?site=kimberley">~$100,000 a day</a> to ensure the road to James Price Point was open and safe to travel as Woodside work resumed. Similarly, the coal and coal seam gas (CSG) proposals in Queensland have been met with local concern including active <a href="http://lockthegate.org.au/">Lock the Gate Alliance</a> protests and media statements. In addition, there has been a great deal of local support to save Bimblebox, including more than 1800 public submissions in response to the Waratah Coal’s Environmental Impact Statement, and the production of a <a href="http://bimbleboxdocumentary.com/">film</a> highlighting the potential effects of planned coal and CSG expansions. </p>
<p>This escalating level of protests and local conflicts suggests that the public debate over the value of mining has not reached a consensus. An in-depth examination of the broader costs and benefits of proposed mines is needed to facilitate a public debate of the issues. </p>
<p><strong>Mining and the Australian Brand</strong> </p>
<p>Mining is an important part of the Australian economy. However, tourism and other industries built on maintaining the natural values of Australia are also important economic sectors.</p>
<p>The Kimberly and Great Barrier Reef represent not only important wilderness areas but also <a href="http://www.crctourism.com.au/wms/upload/resources/bookshop/100021_trembathdestisalienceweb.pdf">brands for iconic nature</a> that attract tourism. They are spectacularly beautiful and unique areas that have been maintained in their natural states to preserve environmental values. The tourism value of the Kimberley was estimated in 2008 to be <a href="http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au/R?func=dbin-jump-full&local_base=gen01-era02&object_id=159860">$637 million</a>, an important 35.8% of the region’s economy. Approximately 88% of the GBR’s contribution to gross domestic product is from tourism, or <a href="http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/5584/gbrmpa_RP84_Measuring_The_Economic_And_Financial_Value_Of_The_GBRMP_2005.pdf">~$5.1 billion in 2005</a>.</p>
<p>However, the future security of tourism in these regions relies on the branding of environmental assets. Mining impacts on these assets could severely impact these brands and have lasting implications for the tourism industries in these regions. The decision to mine these areas has important consequences for Australia’s reputation as an environmental steward of world heritage areas. But the decision also affects industries, such as tourism, that have worked to build brands around the environmental values of these regions. Is the loss or devaluing of these brands something we can afford or is the price of mining too great? Impending decisions by State Governments and Environment Minister Tony Burke will be making that call, whether presented as such or not. </p>
<p><em>Comments welcome below.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/8094/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article. They also have no relevant affiliations. The views expressed in the piece are solely the author’s and do not reflect any affiliations.
</span></em></p>Australia has built a strong global brand based on its iconic natural beauty. For example, the new Australia Tourism campaign, “There’s nothing like Australia”, features icons like the Kimberley, Uluru…Vanessa Adams, Research Fellow, Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.