[ad_1]
Gas producer Santos is free to install a vital gas pipeline from its $5.5 billion Barossa gas project after the Federal Court rejected claims it could damage Indigenous cultural heritage, and criticised an expert witness and a lawyer acting for Tiwi Islanders.
On Monday, Justice Natalie Charlesworth lifted an injunction imposed in early November on installing the pipeline near the Tiwi Islands after finding concerns about its effect on a rainbow serpent named Ampiji and a song line about a Crocodile Man were not widely held among Tiwi Island traditional owners.
Jikilaruwu traditional owner Simon Munkara. Credit: Tymunna Clements
Simon Munkara, a Tiwi Islands traditional owner, launched a case in the Federal Court in October, represented by the Environmental Defenders Office, to stop the installation of the pipeline until Santos did more to protect underwater cultural heritage. Two other Tiwi clans later joined the case.
In her judgment, Charlesworth said differing accounts from witnesses from the Jikilaruwu, Munupi and Malawu people led her to conclude the beliefs and customs that formed the intangible cultural heritage the applicants claimed could be damaged by the pipeline were not broadly accepted within their communities.
Munkara said in a statement he was disappointed in the outcome.
Loading
“We brought this case to protect our Sea Country,” he said. “We are hurting and need some time to think.”
Santos noted the decision in a statement to the market and said it would continue laying the pipeline.
Charlesworth criticised evidence from Dr Mick O’Leary, an expert witness for the applicants, who conducted a “cultural mapping” exercise with Tiwi Islanders to combine evidence from science and Indigenous traditional stories to demonstrate intangible cultural heritage existed along the pipeline route.
[ad_2]
Source link
