Developing Australia’s ‘frontier’ may be political pipedream

Stuff NZ, JAMES REGAN       29/07/2013″………ABORIGINES CONTROL THE NORTH    Australia’s miners and Aborigines are uncomfortable bedfellows. The minerals beneath aboriginal land in the north can benefit the nation’s most disadvantaged people, but often mineral wealth clashes with their ancient beliefs.

In 1991 Australia’s then prime minister stopped then BHP’s planned Coronation Hill gold mine because of local Aborigines believed a giant serpent lived beneath the hill.    A fifth of the Northern Territory is now owned or controlled by aboriginal groups and Abbott will need to convince them of the benefits of mining if he is to see a new resources boom.

Many Aborigines have joined environmentalist to discourage mining. Electronic sensors have even been installed in some places to warn if mining companies trespass.

The Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corp is campaigning for the massive Jabiluka uranium deposit, 300kms (185 miles) south of Darwin, to be included in the nearby Kakadu National Park to stop further development.  Resources multinational Rio Tinto’s Energy Resources of Australia Ltd subsidiary is permitted to mine uranium around the site until 2021 but only as long as it adheres to restrictions imposed by indigenous land owners.

Green politicians, likely to be key swing votes in the upper house Senate after the election, oppose Abbott’s plan.