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The foreign-owned Fortune Agribusiness was awarded a water licence to extract up to 40 gigalitres of groundwater a year for the next three decades, once it is running a 3,500 hectare fruit and vegetable farm on Alywarr land at Singleton Station near Ali Curung south of Tennant Creek.

The case could start the process of Aboriginal rights to groundwater beneath their traditional lands, if native title holders win, but the agricultural company cannot extract any water until the case is heard and the NT Government completes a full environmental assessment.

Six Alywarr Native TItle holders were in Canberra this week for the initial hearing of their challenge to the NT Government’s granting of the water licence, which was handed out for free, and unusually, allowed for 30 years of water extraction, rather than the usual 10 year limit.

The Central Land Council, which is supporting the legal challenge on behalf of the Mpwerempwer Aboriginal Corporation native title holders, claims financial experts have valued the water that would be extracted at between $70 and $300 million a year once the farm was running at full capacity.

Fortune Agribusiness has declined to comment since the High Court confirmed last year it would hear the case, its plans involve turning 3,500 hectares of Singleton Station into a horticultural farm, mainly to export fruit and vegetables overseas.

Traditional owners say the groundwater supports at least 40 recognised sacred sites, native plants and animals, soakages cultural songlines, and due to the variable nature of the water supply, could have unintended impacts across thousands of hectares of their traditional lands.

Alyawarr traditional owner and 2026 Order of Australia medal recipient Frankie Holmes, who attended the hearing, said water was central to people’s identity and survival.

“It’s water that’s special and it’s just not replaceable. It must be looked after. Our body and our blood and everything depends on water. Without water, we finish,” he said.

Despite heated debate over whether the Territory Government has taken traditional owners’ concerns seriously, native title holders hope the High Court will decide in their favour.

Among those were native title holder and Mpwerempwer director Dawn Swan, who said she was happy that finally someone was listening.

“We have people living on the land and this is their dream to stay here for future generations,” she said.

However, other native holders remain concerned about the proposal, particularly potentially overstated claims of local jobs, and the lack of any water or land set aside for a native title holder owned horticultural enterprise.

The 0872 Report spoke to two of those involved in the Water for Justice campaign, Peter Corbett and Ned Kelly, who say they are still waiting for anyone from Fortune Agribusiness or the Territory Government to genuinely engage with the community.

Both native title holders told The 0872 Report said no-one from the company or senior Territory government officials had actually visited the community to discuss the water licence and its potential impacts on sacred sites or what economic benefits the community would get.

In the Court on Tuesday, both the NT Government and Fortune Agribusiness gave submissions calling on the Court to reject the case entirely.

For more on the case, The 0872 Report returns to 8CCC 102.1FM airwaves this Friday from 9am, kicking off the year with a new podcast series, Power and Water, which will take a closer look at the remote water system from supply issues to drinking water quality - and what's being done to fix these problems.

Tune in to 8CCC Community Radio this Friday from 9am, straight after The Big Brekky Show, for The 0872 Report, news for, by and about remote communities across Central Australia and the Barkly.

This report is part of a series of articles, radio shows and podcasts by The 0872 Report on 8CCC, with the support of the Local and Independent News Association.

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The fight for clean drinking water in Alpurrurulam (hyperlink: Case Study 4: The struggle for good quality drinking water in Alpurrurulam - Water360) has been running ever since local First Nations clans were moved from their traditional lands into the community to make way for cattle as Lake Nash Station was created.

But for nearly two decades, that fight has also had the backing of the Central Land Council, which has taken the battle to Darwin and Canberra, and in recent years, has been quietly lobbying the National Indigenous Australians Agency in the capital to fund the project.

The 0872 Report has spoken to several sources across all three levels of government - the council, NT and federal governments, CLC and community members - but none were able to comment due to confidential discussions, and fears talking openly with the media could jeopardise the $8.1 million now on the table.

It also comes after the World Health Organisation updated its international drinking water guidelines almost two years ago, which saw the Territory government trucking bottled water to Alpurrurulam residents, particularly for pregnant women, children and the elderly.

We spoke last week with the head of the NT Government’s Remote water team, Nicole Joy, who has been the only person to talk publicly about the project to date.

The 0872 Report understands a public announcement of the project is sitting on the desk of Cabinet ministers in both the NT and federal government, and is expected later this year.

She said Alpurrurulam was identified as “a priority community” by the NT government, due to the existing water supply constraints, but she was unable to say when the project would start, or be completed.

The 0872 Report has scoured more than 10 years of documents related to ALpurrurulam’s battle for clean, safe drinking water across all levels of government, and those provided to several national parliamentary inquiries.

Grant listings for the Aboriginal Benefits Account-funded project show the government approved the funds to pay for the new infrastructure five years ago.

But it wasn’t until last year that the money was actually transferred from the government to the CLC, and then on to the Power and Water Corporation to actually complete the work.

Under the terms of the grant, if the Alpurrurulam project was delivered on time, which is unlikely due to flooding and ongoing talks with Lake Nash Station over a land access agreement - it would not be completed, at the earliest, until 2028.

In a submission by CLC to a Joint Parliamentary Committee Inquiry into Energy, Water and Food Security in Northern Australia in 2024, the CLC included the problems with Alpurrurulam’s drinking water.

That submission argued the fight for clean water in Alpurrurulam was typical of water being used as a tool of colonisation, which the CLC argued “removed people from (their) clean water source (the Georgina River) and forced people on to less desirable country with very poor quality”.

“Despite significant efforts by the Alpurrurulam community and the Central Land Council in recent years to progress a new bore project that would deliver better quality water from Lake Nash Station the Alpurrurulam community’s fight continues”, the submission reads.

“While ABA funding has been secured with assistance from NIAA the project has stalled over failed land access negotiations with the pastoral lease holders.

“The findings from the US Toxicology Program of the impacts of high fluoride levels on children’s brain developments add a level of urgency to the need to establish a permanent and safe alternative water supply for community residents.”

In all, while the money is now in Power and Water coffers, the CLC, the federal and NT governments are still in talks with the Lake Nash station owners about land access to ensure Alpurrurulam residents can drink water that meets the national standards.

One NT government source told The 0872 Report, on condition of anonymity:

“Water is precious, and whether you live in Darwin, Alice Springs or Alpurrurulam, you should still have the same access to safe, quality drinking water.”

This story is part of The 0872 Report’s series of stories about the challenges facing the NT’s remote water system, and what is being done about them, supported by funding from the Local and Independent News Association.

You can listen to the full story, first aired last Friday on 8CCC 10.2.1FM, below, and go to 8ccc.com.au and follow the links to The 0872 Report, to hear all our podcasts on demand.

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The program, which is run by the Territory’s utility provider Power and Water Corporation, is called “That’s My Water”, and while has mainly been run in Top End primary schools, is being expanded into more remote communities across central Australia.

The 0872 Report spoke to Power and Water’s Joel Spry recently about the first decade of the program, how it became certified as an official educational program by the national curriculum regulator, and how bringing in Elders in remote communities to teach children about the cultural importance of water has been central to its success out bush.

Mr Spry said the course included information ranging from the science behind how groundwater gets from aquifers to taps in remote communities to how important it was was to report leaks to preserve what he called one of nature’s “most precious resources”.

Hear the full interview below, as part of The 0872 Report’s series on remote water supply and quality across central Australia and the Barkly, supported by funding from the Local and Independent News Association.

And tune in to 8CCC 102.1FM tomorrow from 9am for a special report on the decades-long fight for quality drinking water in one of the nation’s most remote communities, Alpurrurulam, a tiny community in the Barkly also known as Lake Nash

It is one of a few Territory communities, including Nyirripi, where the NT Government was forced to truck in bottled water for pregnant women, children and the elderly, when international drinking water rules were tightened 18 months ago.

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And the Power and Water Corporation, which runs the remote reporting line created since the February 2024 Telstra outage, says it is planning to include First Nations language options for remote residents across the 72 communities it provides utilities.

The 0872 Report spoke with PWC’s Michelle Flynn, who has led the project to create the new 1800 245 091 remote community hotline, last week.

She said the government-owned corporation had been working with the Aboriginal Interpreter Service on the simplified remote hotline, which includes just three options, after Maningrida residents raised concerns the original NT-wide hotline was confusing for people who didn’t speak English as a first language.

The hotline gives people three options, one to report emergencies; one for issues like power outages and water leaks, and a third option to top up their power cards and pay bills.

Ms Flynn said while it was hard to provide data on what specific issues remote customers were calling about compared to urban residents in Darwin and Alice Springs, the hotline had received more then 440 calls from residents of remote Territory communities in its first year of operations.

You can hear the full interview from The 0872 Report above, which is one of a series of reports the weekly news and current affairs show is doing on remote water issues in central Australia and the Barkly.

Tune in to The 0872 Report on 8CCC 102.1FM this Friday at 9am for an exclusive interview with the Central Australian woman grappling with four NT Government departments, as well as Power and Water, in an effort to improve water quality and supply across the Territory.

This report and podcast was supported through a grant from the Local and Independent News Association.

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We also examine the Indigenous Employment Provisional Sum, an NT Government program designed to create more local First Nations jobs on government contracts but was defrauded about $60 million.

And in good news, some 40 homes across several homelands in Utopia have had a raft of renovations and re-builds worth more than $12 million, making a difference to life on country.

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We also talk to Anmatyerre man Raymond Walters Penangke, who grew up in humpies in Yuendumu and near Ti Tree, and whose Mparntwe-Alice Springs based firm Penangke Cultural Consultants has been twice nominated for Best Blak Consultancy in the NT by NT Indigenous Business Network .

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