The Kimberley Land Council has made a controversial in-principle agreement with Woodside Petroleum and the federal and WA state governments to develop a liquefied natural gas project at James Price Point near Broome.
The deal opens an area of high environmental and cultural significance to development. Between $1.5 billion and $2 billion will be provided over 30 years for infrastructure for local Aboriginal communities. Much of the funding would take the form of health and education services, ABC Radio National said on April 28.
In December, the Kimberley Land Council rejected Woodside's offer of $500 million for the site.
On April 15, the Goolarabooloo Jabirr Jabirr Native Title Claim Group voted in favour, by a margin of 90%, to give initial approval to the project. An in-principle agreement was signed at James Price Point on April 28.
"Traditional owners will not give final approval for the project until essential cultural heritage and environmental studies are completed and provide satisfactory clearance of these issues", said Kimberley Land Council CEO Wayne Bergmann.
"Standing here today with the state government and Woodside shows us how far Indigenous people have come in the 30 years since the Noonkanbah dispute [when] a multinational company and the state government ignored what little rights Indigenous people had."
The area off the Kimberley coast is believed to hold a third of Australia's natural gas reserves.
Environmental group Environs Kimberley has raised concerns that the Woodside project will damage a unique ecosystem.
"The massive blasting and dredging of millions of tonnes of reef and seagrass for a five-kilometre breakwater and industrial port would be an environmental disaster for marine life off the internationally significant Kimberley coast", the group said on April 27.
Some traditional owners have questioned who stands to benefit from the deal. Ninety percent of the Aboriginal people in the area are members of the Stolen Generations. This has caused disputes as to who are really the traditional owners.
Neil McKenzie, a Jabirr Jabirr man, boycotted the vote on April 15. He told ABC Radio National on April 28: "I hope they don't go through with it … I hope for my kids and grandkids we can say this is where we still hunt and this is still where it is traditional and cultural heritage here."
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett had made it clear that the state government could have compulsorily taken the land had the Goolarabooloo Jabirr Jabirr Native Title Claim Group voted against the deal.