Palatine Energy denied fracking permit in Australian national park
The government of the Northern Territory in Australia has denied a mining permit to Palatine Energy, a company that had sought to frack the Watarrka national park. Watarrka’s 105,200 hectares of land is under the custodianship of the Martutjarra-Luritja people and contains three Aboriginal living areas. The park contains more than 600 species of plants and numerous native animals. It is culturally significant to Aboriginal people and continues to be a place of traditional observance, customs and ceremony.

The Northern Territory government has denied a mining permit to a company seeking to frack the Watarrka national park, which encompasses Kings Canyon in central Australia.

The decision on an application first lodged about four years ago was announced on the same day traditional owners petitioned the federal environment minister to step in and protect the land under commonwealth legislation.

David Tollner, the minister for mines and energy, said oil and gas permit applications for both Watarrka and the Coomalie council region would not be granted under the oil and gas guidelines announced by the NT government last week.

“Government recently implemented these new measures, on top of its already robust regulations, to ensure onshore oil and gas activities can proceed alongside other land usages in a safe and sustainable manner,” Tollner said.

“Both applications were assessed as not satisfying all of the recently announced criteria.”



The proposed reforms, announced last week, seek to streamline the environmental approval process by removing red and “green” tape and increase transparency in public reporting requirements by businesses. It followed on from an earlier report by NT fracking inquiry commissioner, Dr Allan Hawke, which found the environmental risks of fracking could be managed “subject to the creation of a robust regulatory regime”.

Palatine energy applied four years ago to explore resource extraction in the Watarrka national park, and had indicated it would use the hydraulic fracturing process.



Watarrka’s 105,200 hectares of land is under the custodianship of the Martutjarra-Luritja people and contains three Aboriginal living areas: Lila, Wanmarra and Ulpanyali. The park contains more than 600 species of plants and numerous native animals. It is culturally significant to Aboriginal people and continues to be a place of traditional observance, customs and ceremony.



David Morris, principal lawyer of the NT Environmental Defenders Office, welcomed the decision.

“It’s a really pleasing result,” Morris said. “This is the right outcome after a such a long period of time. It obviously does demonstrate the commitment the government made last week in terms of safeguarding areas of high ecological significance and high cultural value, and that they’re following through with it.

“I’ll be really looking forward to informing the traditional owner group and I’m sure they’ll be pleased.”

Morris had assisted a group of about 30 traditional owners who earlier on Tuesday hand-delivered an emergency application to the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, to protect Watarrka against exploration by Palatine.

A second application requests Hunt permanently declare the park protected under the federal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act.

Morris added that while the traditional owners would likely be “over the moon”, they would also urge Tollner to formally declare Watarrka “off-limits to all forms of mining”.



“They want to continue to see the culture of the park, the tourism benefits of the park, continue without the potential risks from mining development.”

Tollner told ABC radio in Alice Springs the decision to deny a permit to Palatine was made last week, but wouldn’t say why he hadn’t informed the traditional owners’ group before they left to see the federal environment minister.

The minister said the traditional owners should have called his department to find out how the new regulations affected Watarrka before they went to Canberra on a “publicity stunt”.

Watarrka was declared a national park in 1989, and in 2005 was scheduled under legislation as NT parks freehold land.



“The park’s land tenure provides a framework under which the traditional owners’ wishes can be undermined by the government of the day in the Northern Territory, despite having joint management rights,” the application to Hunt said.

“This land tenure has meant that Palatine’s application is still on foot, despite repeated requests to the government that it be refused.”

A spokesman for Hunt said: “Any application for the heritage protection of the park will be carefully considered in accordance with the relevant legislation.”

Dr David Falvey, managing director of Palatine Energy, told Guardian Australia had been informed by the head of the mines and energy department, just an hour before the announcement. Falvey said he was disappointed for the traditional owners who wanted the development and associated jobs and economic benefits, and believed the case had been misrepresented by those speaking for the traditional owners opposed to it.

Falvey also believed the NT government had deliberately waited before rejecting his company’s application.

“Timing is everything,” he said. “The important thing to note is while this application has been in and considered for four years they decided now to change the regulations and use those to reject the application.”

When asked if he believed it was a deliberate move by the NT government Falvey replied: “of course. One would be drawn to that conclusion.”

Palatine would not be fighting the permit’s rejection, Falvey said, but he offered “no comment” when asked if the company would seek redress for the four years spent waiting for a decision.

He had earlier told ABC radio the government had been “indecisive, which I think is probably the most diplomatic words I can use to describe their behaviour”.

“If they wanted to take a fundamentalist environmentalist line, I would have prefered to be aware of that four years ago.”

Before the announcement Falvey said the area under Palatine’s application, made four years ago, is at the top of a range away from springs, and the company had offered exclusion zones.

