www.firstnationstelegraph.com
Tunnel protest planned to send message to Santos
Kerry Blackman, seen here with his wife Jacquie at the recent Murri Koori rugby league game, is organising a protest outside Santos Place in Brisbane against Santos’ breach of their signed ILUA for unsupervised tunneling in the Gladestone Harbour. Image: Rhonda Hagan
by Stephen Hagan
G
urang Traditional Owner and Applicant of the Port Curtis Coral Coast Aboriginal Corportion, Neville Johnson, told First Nations Telegraph that mining giant Santos has no right tunneling under the ground without cultural heritage monitors engaged to oversight their work. “My people have been here for over 120,000 years and back then the sea level was quite low. We don’t know if there are sites
of cultural significance under the ground … and neither does Santos,” Mr Johnson said. “This is fairly typical of Santos who have broken ILUA (Indigenous Land Use Agreement) commitments with our tribe before and no doubt have done the same with many other tribes they’ve dealt with in their efforts to extract mineral wealth from our lands. “It’s time for Santos to honour their ILUA signed with our tribe and act in a culturally appropriate manner when dealing with us. After
all they stand to make billions from using our land for minerals, ports, roads and now tunnels … the least they can do is show us a bit of respect.” Santos has commenced a massive excavation for a four-kilometre tunnel underneath the Gladstone Harbour. The tunnel is being built under The Narrows, a section of marshland and ocean north of Gladstone. When completed in about a year the tunnel will deliver Santos CSG Page 1
pipeline to Curtis Island from the mainland. There are two other pipelines deliving coal seam gas to Curtis Island but those pipelines sit on sub-sea trenches. Port Curtis Coral Coast Aboriginal Corportion has signed an ILUA with Miriam Vale Shire Council, State of Queensland, Gurang Land Council and the National Native Title Tribunal for work to commence on the Curtis Island $20 billion project. The Curtis Island project will be the world’s first project to turn coal seam gas - from Surat Basin in southern Queensland 540 kms away - into liquefied natural gas, or LNG, that will then be pumped into hugh purpose-built LNG ships destined for overseas markets. First Nations Telegraph delayed publishing this story on yesterday at the request of Santos’ Senior Media and Communications Adviser who asked for 24 hours to put together a response to allegations made by Applicants of the Port Curtis Coral Coast Aboriginal Corportion. After talking to the senior media officer from Santos during the
day and having him reassure First Nations Telegraph that a response was imminent, no response materialised. High profile leader and PCCC Native Title Applicant, Kerry Blackman told First Nations Telegraph that Santos is showing his people no respect. “Santos has shown a total disrespect for the new applicants in relation to both ongoing ILUA implementation and cultural heritage matters,” Mr Blackman said, “I don’t know if Traditional Owners in Brisbane monitored the Clem 7 tunnel that was built under the Brisbane river or the other tunnels linking the city to the airport, northern suburbs and the west to the east side, but we certainly will be making a stand against the arrogance of Santos thinking that there is nothing under the ground of cultural significance. “It’s a disgrace that these so called brainy white fellas can worship the minerals coming from the ground that’s making them rich that came about from millions of
years of earth compression ... yet they can’t get around the fact that our elders walked that land they’re tunneling in when the sea level was much lower hundreds of thousands of years ago.” Mr Blackman said his company, Gidarjil, will commence preparations for a large protest outside Santos Place in Turbot Street in the coming weeks. “In regards to logistics Gidarjil will assist those Traditional Owners who can’t make their way to Brisbane by hiring a 25 seater bus out of Bundaberg and will also hire a 25 seater bus out of Gladstone if the applicants confirm the need,” Mr Blackman said. “We will rally all Traditional Owners in Brisbane to attend along with our Aboriginal brothers and sisters and other Traditional Owners from other groups along the Santos footprint. “Santos has never paid the proper rent for putting their ugly footprint on our land in the first place with their gammon ILUA compensation package for the PCCC Native Title Claim group.”