Once again, a court in Australia has endorsed magic — and a mining billionaire must be wondering why he’s bothered showering largesse on Aboriginal communities.
Billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest is considering his options after losing an appeal to draw water from a river sacred to traditional owners to irrigate his pastoral property.
At issue isn’t ownership, but magic and the supposed vengeful feelings of nature spirits.
The WA State Administrative Tribunal on Thursday rejected an appeal by Mr Forrest’s cattle company to build nine weirs along the Ashburton River, also known as Mindurru […]
Forrest’s agri-food business, Harvest Road, which runs numerous stations including the cattle station Minderoo, says the weirs would have improved fresh water access for both agriculture and the local ecosystem.
“Minderoo” also happens to be the name of Forrest’s charitable foundation which, among other things, has funneled hundreds of millions into initiatives in WA. Forrest also champions Aboriginal employment in his companies. Turns out, though, that all the charity in the world isn’t enough to buy the goodwill of a mystical snake.
The tribunal’s decision comes four years after Mr Forrest first requested approval to build the weirs to drought-proof the station, nearly 1400km north of Perth, through cattle subsidiary Forrest and Forrest Pty Ltd.
Leaky weirs do not stop water flow, but use natural debris to slow it down and allow it to rehydrate soil instead of evaporating quickly.
After trialling a weir in 2011 with the support of Thalanyji Elders, the original proposal sought permission to build 10 more weirs and a granite quarry […]
Then Aboriginal affairs minister Ben Wyatt rejected the proposal but the company lodged an appeal to review the decision, arguing not all of the river could be considered a sacred site.
Mr Forrest argued the word sacred did not apply to mythological story, song or belief.
Which sounds like so much rhetorical peas-and-shells. But the real issue ought to be: do Australian courts believe in magic?
Apparently, they do.
The Thalaynji people were concerned the weirs could impact the river’s ecosystem and flow, and disturb the water serpent Warnamankura who lives there.
“Changes to the river that are caused by the weirs might make Warnamunkura angry,” a traditional owner said in evidence.
AAP
Well, can’t go making the magic snakes angry, can we?
This isn’t the first time an Australian court has endorsed magic, though. All of which begs the question: whose magic matters, and whose doesn’t?
Aborigines can wave a magic stick and claim a “spiritual connection to the land”, and get fawned on by a court. But a fundamentalist Christian sect who refused to pay rates because the land belonged to God, was summarily dispossessed. A “witch” who refused a speeding fine, because she “wasn’t of this world” got very short shrift.
Maybe she should have nuggeted up and claimed the fine would make the rainbow serpent angry.