What Mabo has Wrought
Peter O’Brien, Quadrant , Aug 04 2026
In my latest book, Juukan – the New Dark Emu (order it here), I postulate that, in the wake of the ludicrous findings of the Parliamentary Enquiry into the legal demolition by Rio Tinto of two nondescript rock shelters , protection of Aboriginal heritage will become an increasingly intolerable burden for mining companies to bear. A recent judgment by the Federal Court against Fortescue Mining Group bears that out. What follows is an extract from my book and some observations about the latest developments.
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In its submission to the Juukan Parliamentary Enquiry, Fortescue (FMG) describes itself as a “proud” Western Australian company, no doubt to establish right off that they have been listening to, and learning from, their “native title partners”.
FMG has seven agreements with different native title holders, and they note:
Among other things, the Native Title Agreements facilitate the identification and protection of significant Aboriginal cultural heritage through Aboriginal Cultural heritage surveys. As a result of these surveys, Fortescue and native title holders have surveyed 2.5 million km2 of land and identified and protected over 5900 cultural heritage places. Fortescue submits that this extensive protection is evidence that the State cultural heritage protection regime is largely successful.
Not a great start, I would have thought, for FMG to claim that it had surveyed 2.5 million square kilometres, in other words pretty much the whole of Western Australia. Makes you wonder if the figure of 5900 protected sites is also an order of magnitude out.