By MICHAEL SLOVANOS
THE scene was what one would possibly count on from the ABC – an clearly sympathetic radio reporter talks with Michael Woodley, CEO of the Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Company (aka AbCorp), beneath bushes beside a effervescent creek about AbCorp’s massive win in court docket in opposition to a white fella’s mining firm and the WA State Authorities.
It’s the standard AbCorp spin: Our individuals have been dwelling peacefully on nation, in concord with our sacred websites and water spirits, till white man turned up together with his machines. A rival company has a completely completely different method.
On this case the corporate is Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), which, beneath a take care of the rival Wirlu Murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Company, dug up and mined, allegedly with out permission, a portion of the 13,000 sq. kilometres of land that Woodley’s Abcorp has claimed beneath Native Title.
Wirlu Murra is predicated in Roebourne, and was fashioned in 2010 after they struck impartial land use offers with FMG. The ABC Enterprise report didn’t point out them as a result of they’re apparently blacklisted due to their dealings with FMG.
Wirlu Murra have a way more pragmatic method than Woodley’s mob, and run companies together with an earthmoving outfit and bus firm that transports employees to and from FMG’s Solomon mine on the centre of the dispute. The mine is about 5 hours’ drive from Karratha and Roebourne.
“We proudly generate our earnings from the profitable supply of enterprise contracts. We’re the one 100% self-sustainable Neighborhood Organisation in Roebourne,” the company says on its web site. The companies are run by Wirlu-Murra Enterprises Pty Ltd.
Wirlu-Murra Enterprises Pty Ltd has a formidable fleet of ten 55-seat CBI buses beneath a 5 five-year contract with FMG for
taking employees to and from the Solomon mine website.
Federal Courtroom Justice Stephen Burley awarded the Yindjibarndi a cool $150 million for “cultural loss” and $100,000 for financial loss, the biggest court-ordered native title compensation in Australian historical past. The case ran for 14 years.
However Woodley tells the ABC he’s not impressed with the $151.1 million and would possibly launch an attraction. In spite of everything, what’s a mere $150 million for an AbCorp that yearly shares in some $32 billion dished out by the Federal Authorities throughout the board for Aboriginal providers.
Little doubt Woodley and his two AbCorps (the opposite one is Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Company) additionally want much more than a $150 million to construct their “nation” – that’s proper, they’re constructing some type of nation up there within the Pilbara on their 13,000 sq. km. “We’re supporting a homeland motion that may allow Yindjibarndi individuals to return to their nation to stay,” the AbCorp states on its web site.
Woodley claims as his house the small neighborhood of Ngurrawaana, which was established by his grandfather. It’s one and a half hours’ drive inland from both Roebourne or Karratha.
The inhabitants is just 25, but when they and some others making up the Yindjibarndi “nation” divvy up the $150 million between them, there’s going to be some very rich people dwelling within the WA outback. That, in fact, received’t occur, as a result of AbCorp bureaucracies take in the cash to pay their company workers and run their varied packages.
Might it’s that Woodley and firm have their eyes on some type of billion dollar-plus settlement from FMG, whose web revenue was greater than $AUD4.8 billlion for the 12 months to June 2025 from income of greater than $15 billion? In spite of everything, sealed roads and parliament homes for “nations” don’t come low cost.
The truth is within the court docket case, Yindjibarndi Company sought compensation of over $1.8 billion – $1 billion for cultural loss and over $800 million for financial loss. The state and Fortescue argued that compensation for cultural loss must be within the $5 million to $10 million vary, whereas financial loss must be restricted to the freehold worth of the land.
So what in regards to the Wirlu Murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Company from Roebourne, the mob that the ABC would fairly not speak about.
Again in 2015 ABC reported {that a} Federal Courtroom choose Justice Steven Rares informed the court docket that “FMG orchestrated the convening of the assembly” to arrange the Roebourne group in 2010, together with the voting process “to a substantial diploma”.
“The assembly and voting preparations had been refined and organised by the energetic involvement of FMG,” he mentioned.
“Considerably, every of the members … who gave oral proof accepted that nobody on the assembly would have been conscious that FMG had performed any function within the logistics or association of the assembly or in apparently supporting the pursuit of the resolutions that had been proposed.”
So the Wirlu Murra mob did the unforgiveable, by doing enterprise offers with Fortescue, and commendably, operating its company from the proceeds of its companies.
Andrew Forrest’s FMG was accused of unauthorised mining of a whole lot of thousands and thousands of tonnes of iron ore from Yindjibarndi land since 2013, producing tens of billions in income. The court docket discovered the corporate’s Solomon Hub mines induced important injury to sacred websites and cultural heritage, with 124 of 240 websites fully destroyed.
The Yindjibarndi mob first lodged their native title declare in 2003, gaining unique rights in 2017 after years of court docket battles, however by that point Fortescue had already developed the Solomon Hub mines, backed by state approvals and an settlement with the Wirlu Murra mob.
Failed negotiations over royalties and compensation led to the 14-year authorized battle, culminating within the 2022 submitting for court-determined compensation.
Yindjibarndi Abcorp leaders welcomed the ruling as a milestone for “First Nations rights” however criticised the award as insufficient given Fortescue’s estimated $80 billion in earnings from the mine, ABC reported.
“Woodley referred to as the financial loss element disappointing and signalled a doable attraction, saying, “We don’t get this far and cease.” Elders reportedly described the cultural injury as irreparable, with one calling the land ‘my faith’.
What the ABC will not be telling us is that quite a lot of Kimberley Aborigines are Christians and don’t subscribe to the previous animistic faith that worships land and sacred websites.
If extra AbCorps adopted the Wirlu Murra self-sufficiency instance and did sensible enterprise offers with mining firms, the reason for Aboriginal development can be actually well-served.
Writer and former Fairfax journalist Paul Cleary claims that Fortescue’s method – mining with out consent whereas incomes large revenues – threatens to undermine this technique. “The case units a precedent for valuing cultural loss at a scale that will affect future negotiations and litigation,” he informed AAP.
The truth that Woodley and his mob are so dismissive of a $150 million settlement signifies the size of cash flowing Abcorps Australia-wide. A latest depend put the determine at $32 billion yearly throughout the board for Aboriginal providers.
So sure, a $150 million payout for some unknown West Australian Abcorp is comparatively small cash. What the breakaway group earned from its take care of Fortescue we don’t know. Media will not be speaking about them for some motive.
We do know that Fortescue has been actively using black fellas from the north west for the previous 20 years, along with serving to them arrange companies within the provide chain. However this reality doesn’t appear to determine within the take care of Woodley and his mob.
Again in 2015 ABC reported Woodley as claiming FMG’s involvement confirmed it was making an attempt to impose phrases on the neighborhood.
“What the proof disclosed on this case was that FMG orchestrated the so-called assembly as a tool to impose its will on the Yindjibarndi Individuals,” he mentioned.
FMG strongly denied this declare and defended its function within the assembly. A spokesman mentioned whereas it offered help for the corporate, it didn’t attempt to straight or not directly affect the end result of the assembly.
He mentioned the corporate had no motive to affect the assembly, as a result of it already had approval for its mines within the space.
“Fortescue has all the approvals it requires for its operations at [its mine] Solomon, together with native title approvals,” the FMG spokesman mentioned.
