The Wangan and Jagalingou Peoples registered a Native Title application on 5 July 2004 and their interests are often presented to the media via the Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council.
According to ORIC
Kyburra Munda Yalga Aboriginal
Corporation RNTBC was originally registered on 5 July 2011 as Kyburra
Munda Yalga Aboriginal Corporation and its name changed on 6 March 2013 and,
according to ASIC Juru Enterprises
Limited was registered on 23 April 2012.
On 11 July
2014 and 26 June 2015 the Juru People
were granted Native Title by the Federal Court over land in north Queensland.
Then foreign multinational resources and energy corporation, the Adani Group, went to work......
The Wangan and
Jagalingou people gathered two weeks ago at a convention centre in Carseldine
north of Brisbane.
They were there to vote
on a proposal to make sure those responsible for their native title claim were
truly representative of the Wangan and Jagalingou people. These are the
traditional owners of the land in the Galilee Basin, precisely where Indian
company Adani aims to build Australia's biggest coal mine, the controversial
$16 billion Carmichael project.
Twice in three years,
the Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) had rejected Adani's advances to sign a
land deal for the mine, and twice Adani had dragged them off to the Native
Title Tribunal and sought approval for the state to override their opposition
to the mine.
It was just after 9am on
Saturday, June 20, when two charter buses turned up at the Tavernetta Function
Centre in Carseldine. Adani had bussed in 150 people in a sly bid to force
consideration of a new memorandum of understanding they claimed to have with
W&J, despite the previous 'no vote' from W&J. It was an Adani ambush,
and it must have cost a fortune: three days of food, accommodation and
transport for 150 people.
"We saw the buses
turn up and we were wondering what was going on," says traditional owner
and W&J lead spokesman Adrian Burragubba.
"They tried to
organise their own meeting after ours in order to get the people to agree to
their MoU - a kind of tricked ILUA [Indigenous Land Use Agreement] when they
knew they didn't have one. Right now we're in the Federal Court precisely
because we refused an ILUA and they have tried to override us."
But Adani's cunning
stunt backfired. They hadn't counted on their 150 voters changing their minds
after impassioned speeches from the likes of Burragubba. W&J tribal elders
are deeply concerned about the effect of the mine on their cultural heritage
and the risks it poses to water and wildlife.
By the end of the day,
Adani's reps had been asked to leave the meeting. Of the W&J's 12 "new
applicants", or claim representatives, at least seven were against Adani,
despite all the money flying about to skew the vote, and three were in favour.
The views of the other two appear in the balance….
Its latest public
missive on the subject came three days before the W&J meeting: "Adani
deepens partnership with Traditional Owners."
As far as W&J are
concerned nothing could be further from the mark. While Adani has signed up
ILUAs with other Indigenous groups – the Juru, Birriah and Jangga Aboriginal
people – whose land lies either on the rail corridors from the Galilee or on
the coast at Abbot Point where the coal is to be shipped to India, there is
only a draft memorandum of understanding intended for the W&J, and one
which is not representative of the majority of families at that.
It is getting messy.
W&J now has a claim before the Federal Court alleging Adani misled the
W&J people. The Native Title Tribunal and the state of Queensland are also
listed as defendants for failing to properly follow process…..
In a stunning video,
traditional owners Aunty Carol Prior and Andrew Morrell call on the Queensland
government to protect their cultural heritage from the Adani Carmichael
coalmine in the Galilee Basin.
Juru country sits to the
east of the proposed mine, but the existing Abbot Point coal port resides on
the Juru coast. This means the proposed rail line linking the mine and Abbot
Point will go right through Juru country.
Traditional owners say
the rail line will block access to ancient rock art sites and ochre ground near
Mount Roadback, and an expansion of Abbot Point will be built just five metres
from sacred burial grounds.
They’ve created a petition calling on the Queensland government to
register their cultural sites under the Queensland Cultural Heritage Act as
‘significant Aboriginal areas.’
The Wangan and
Jagalingou (W&J) traditional owners of the land on which Adani has approval
to build its Carmichael coalmine are concerned that the Queensland government
will act to extinguish their native title rights prior to a Federal Court
hearing scheduled for March 12–15.
This follows the
decision by the Federal Court to not extend an interim injunction, which had
been in place since December 18, restraining the Queensland government from
extinguishing native title under the terms of the purported Indigenous Land Use
Agreement (ILUA).
The W&J traditional
owners have never consented to the mine going ahead. They say the group has
voted four times since 2012 to reject an ILUA with Adani, most recently on 2
December.
On December 8 the Native
Title Tribunal registered Adani’s ILUA documents. The validity of the purported
ILUA is being challenged by W&J Traditional Owners in a Federal Court
hearing scheduled for March. It will consider evidence that the meeting that is
claimed to have authorised the ILUA was stacked with people who had no
authority to authorise a deal and sign away W&J country.
“Nothing can
hide the facts that Adani has worked to divide our community, overturn
our decisions, buy off individuals, split our claim group and engineer a sham
meeting to ‘authorise’ a sham ILUA. And the Queensland government has aided and
abetted them. This deal is illegitimate and should never have gone through.
“The Queensland Labor
government has the power to do something about this, and it’s time they did!
“If we cannot restrain
Adani with an injunction, then the Queensland Government must hear loud and
clear that our land rights and culture cannot be surrendered for Adani’s
profit.
“For us, this campaign
has never just been about Adani. It has always been about protecting and
conserving our land and culture so we can determine our own path forward for
our people. One based on strong respect for our law and culture, the health of
our Country and a resilient community — and clean enterprises and jobs in the
new growth industries like solar energy generation.”
In a 24 May 2018 the Federal Court of Australia ruled that the Juru People themselves had not agreed that Kyburra Munda Yalga Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC should replace Juru Enterprises Limited as the nominated body negotiating an agreement with Adani Australia Pty Ltd. At time of judgment Kyburra Munda Yalga Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC was under administration.
A north Queensland Indigenous
organisation kept secret more than $2m in payments by the Adani mining company,
federal court documents show.
Guardian Australia has
obtained court documents that show the Kyburra Munda Yalga Aboriginal
Corporation did not account for payments by Adani, then paid its own directors
up to $1,000 a day cash-in-hand to conduct now-invalidated cultural heritage
assessments for the Indian mining company.
The federal court last
month delivered a ruling that may void the assessments, which are required to
protect sacred sites from development.
It ruled that another
Indigenous business, Juru Enterprises Limited, was the proper “nominated body”
to represent traditional owners on a land-use agreement with Adani.
The impact of the
decision could be wide-ranging. Traditional owners from near Bowen say they are
“hugely worried” Adani has conducted work at its Abbot Point port based on
improper or conflicted advice from the cultural assessment surveys.
Juru Enterprises could
now demand Adani “redesign or reconfigure” any plans or works near sacred
sites.
The court case has also
exposed how Adani funding was central to alleged rorts conducted by Kyburra
board members. Guardian Australia has seen letters, minutes of meetings, police
reports, auditors reports and sworn affidavits that detail how Kyburra kept
money paid by Adani off the books and then funnelled it to directors through
“fees” and “loans”.
Kyburra declared only
$50,000 total income in consecutive years: 2014/2015 and 2015/16. About $2m was
paid to the organisation by Adani in 2014 and 2015, including an estimated
$800,000 for cultural assessments. But none of it showed up in Kyburra’s annual
financial statements.
Traditional owners said
in a 2016 complaint letter they were suspicious about “secret payments by
Adani”.
The issue before the
federal court was whether Kyburra validly appointed itself as the Juru
nominated body to represent traditional owners on a land-use agreement with
Adani. The Indian company filed a notice submitting to any order the court
might make, except as to costs.
Adani has rejected
suggestions it should have been aware of mismanagement at Kyburra and alleged
rorts by directors, and there is no suggestion the payments themselves were
improper. The company said it was only made aware of “financial matters”
through the court proceedings.
Guardian Australia can
reveal that both the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (Oric)
and the Australian federal police were aware of concerns about Kyburra in 2015
and 2016….
In 2016, a lawyer
representing disgruntled members of Kyburra wrote to Oric asking for an
investigation into the organisation. The letter was also submitted to the court
in the proceedings but not tendered at hearing.
It outlined what Oric
later confirmed in an audit – that Kyburra failed to declare significant income
each year from land-use agreements, including the lucrative deal with Adani. By
declaring only $50,000 annual income, the organisation was exempted from having
to provide audited financial statements. Money from Adani, notionally “for the
benefit and use of the Juru people”, was not accounted for.
“In our submission Kyburra actually received
monies from Adani Mining Pty Ltd ... in the amount of $1,225,000. In addition
... Adani transferred $825,000 to Kyburra for cultural heritage survey
activities,” the letter says.
“Further, our clients
advise that the surveys are conducted by directors alone – about six directors
would be present at any survey – with a daily rate of approximately $1,000 paid
individually to them.
“Our clients are suspicious of similar secret
payments by Adani on behalf of Kyburra.”…..
Morrell[ traditional owner] told
Guardian Australia on Monday he could not explain why Kyburra moved in 2015 to
replace Juru Enterprises as the “nominated body” representing the Juru people
on a land use agreement with Adani. He also questioned why Adani had simply
accepted the switch.
“I really could not tell you that one. That
one really has me baffled.”
He said the court ruling
meant any work carried out by Kyburra for Adani had “not been carried out under
the agreements” and was voided.
“We’re happy to do the
work again. Kyburra and Adani have never forwarded or allowed anyone to see any
of the work being carried out, any of the reports on the work being carried
out. That’s left all the Juru people wondering what was going on.
“We’ll work with them, but everything that has been done will need to be
revised and reviewed and we haven’t had the opportunity to do that yet……
“We’re hugely worried.
Throughout the state development area at Abbot Point alone there’s numerous
places where we have burial sites, rock art, rock carvings, sacred sites. If
any of those areas are being impacted they need to have that impact removed
from that area.
