Gomeroi Community Heartbroken by Approval for Santos to Extract Coal Seam Gas in the Pilliga

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The Gomeroi community feels heartbroken after the National Native Title Tribunal decided to permit Santos to extract coal seam gas from their land, which includes the significant Pilliga Forest.

For over ten years, the Gomeroi people have opposed gas mining on their land in northern New South Wales, rallying under the banner ‘Gamil means no’ to unite their supporters.

Native title groups do not have the right to veto mining on their land but they do have the right to negotiate deals with mining companies, in good faith.

If they fail to reach agreement, then either party can apply to the National Native Title Tribunal for a ruling.

After years of talks the Gomeroi voted 162-2 (4 abstaining) to reject Santos’ proposal, so the company applied to the tribunal, which then approved granting four petroleum production licences for coal seam gas mining in December 2022 for its Narrabri project.

The Gomeroi contested this decision, and in March 2024, the Federal Court found that the National Native Title Tribunal made a mistake in its approval because it neglected to consider climate change, necessitating a reevaluation by the tribunal.

The tribunal panel on Monday again ruled that the petroleum production leases could be granted to Santos, citing the need for more gas and saying when weighing the public interest, including environmental matters, the project would provide a ‘net public benefit’.

For Gomeroi man Raymond Weatherall coming to grips with the idea that his people’s land could be scarred by gas mines is hard.

He had a revelation while camping in the Pilliga with his wife and daughters.

“When you lie there, surrounded by darkness and only the stars above, you grasp the true magnificence of what you are trying to protect, while reflecting on our creation story,” he shared with NITV.

“So it was something that made me want to do everything that I could to sort of build a movement with people so that we could try to save it.

“It’s just indescribable in regards to the way that you feel about a place – it’s like when you drive home and you cross your boundaries and you feel your ancestors wake up when they greet you, not in that physical presence, but in a spiritual one.

“When you go to the Billiga, as we call it, it’s just that same type of feeling – where all paths through Country lead into it – it’s in the centre of our nation.”

The Narrabri project will extract gas from coal seams between 300 and 1200 metres below ground, produced from up to 850 wells, and includes refining facilities, gas and water processing and associated infrastructure.

Gomeroi woman Suellyn Tighe and Mr Weatherall feel that the decision highlights a weakness in the native title system – even when groups have their claim recognised they cannot say ‘no’ to mining on their land.

“I felt let down by a flawed system again, and I know that sounds weird, but this is twice now, in the native title tribunal – it’s emotional,” Ms Tighe said.

“We’ve expressed on a national level that we don’t want the Narrabri gas project to go ahead.

“We’ve expressed it on an individual basis, … we’ve expressed it from community levels, such as my community in Coonabarabran, where Elders in their 60s, 70s and 80s have come out and said they do not want to have this happen on their Country.

“These are Elders who are facing health conditions and they’ve come out and supported the struggle against having the Santos gas project happening in the Narrabri and Pilliga region.”

In its reasons for approving the gas project the Tribunal included providing new gas supply to the east coast gas market.

“When considering public interest, the panel placed significant weight on the project providing energy reliability if all the gas produced is made available to the domestic market as intended,” the tribunal said.

“The evidence in this matter has shown that if the leases are not granted, there will likely be a gap in the available supply of reliable, secure energy on Australia’s east coast, which would have significant short-to-medium-term detrimental impacts upon the wider community, including Gomeroi people.”

Ms Tighe said she was proud of Gomeroi Elders and community and those who stood by their side in opposing gas mining.

“Gomeroi people, historically, are strong and we will remain strong in this battle,” she said.

Mr Weatherall also said the resistance wasn’t over.

“I think the thing that native title and the courts and so a lot of white fellas don’t get is that feeling that it gives us, our land, no matter what – our beautiful Country, that we appreciate what it does for us and it’s worth saving,” he said.

“The Great Artesian Basin, it’s under threat, the biggest underground water reserve in the world … underwater rivers … that are all interconnected.

“So there’s a whole lot that the government didn’t take it into consideration and neither did the people who sat on that (NNTT) panel to make the decision – they just talk about the money in it.”

Santos said in a statement to NITV that the company had committed 100 per cent of Narrabri gas for supply to the domestic market, which it claimed could provide up to half of NSW’s natural gas demand. 

“Supply into the domestic gas market is now also a condition of the ‘future act’ determination,” the statement said.

The NSW Government will now consider the project.