Andrew Forrest has scored a tactical win in his quest to grow melons and onions on Minderoo Station, with the Supreme Court ruling a refusal to grant consent was done so in error.
Andrew Forrest has scored a tactical win in his quest to grow a horticulture precinct on Minderoo Station, with the Supreme Court ruling a refusal to grant consent to damage Aboriginal heritage was done so in error.
Harvest Road has been planning fruit and vegetable cropping on the Forrest family station near Onslow for nearly a decade and lodged a section 18 notice for land use which could disrupt Aboriginal heritage with the Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee in 2017.
Those plans would include construction of 10 leaky weirs on the Ashburton River – so named because they would allow some water to flow downstream – to irrigate commercial crops on the station.
Buurabalayji Thalanyji Aboriginal Corporation has opposed the plan, arguing any change to the watercourse, the entirety of which is a registered Aboriginal heritage site, would harm or kill the spiritual water serpent which created the river from which Minderoo’s name is derived.
The ACMC recommended against the project in 2018, Aboriginal Affairs minister Ben Wyatt declined the application in 2019, and a 2021 State Administrate Tribunal backed the minister’s decision on appeal.
But in court on Friday, Justice Robert Mitchell ruled the tribunal had erred in its refusal of the application by giving too much weight to the minister’s decision.
Core to that decision was a finding the tribunal should not have considered the minister’s argument the plan was not in the “general interest of the community” as part of grounds for refusal.
“The tribunal was required to form its own view, on the material before the tribunal, as to where the general interest of the community lay at the time of the tribunal's decision upon the review,” Justice Mitchell said.
“The minister had declined to give consent and must therefore have formed the view that the general interest of the community was against the appellant's proposed use of the land.
“However, the tribunal was not entitled to give weight to the fact of the minister's decision as supporting the proposition that this was the general interest of the community
“In reconsidering the matter, the tribunal must not give weight to the minister's decision of 25 March 2019 to refuse consent under [section 18] of the Aboriginal Heritage Act.”
The decision means Harvest Road can take its weirs proposal back to the tribunal to reconsider, armed with fresh evidence.
The proposed weirs would increase the amount of river water absorbed into the surrounding landscape during flood events, which would underpin Minderoo’s horticulture plans and drought-proof its beef production.
Melons, sweet potato, and onions were among crops touted for the station in 2017 when plans for what was touted as a $100 million annual crop were first made public.
Minderoo has argued the project’s economic benefits meant it was in the public interest for the state government to grant consent.
One leaky weir was built on the river in 2011 with consent from Thalanyji elders.
