Yindjibarndi leader Michael Woodley and iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest don’t often see eye to eye, but both want to improve the lives of Indigenous people in the Pilbara town of Roebourne.
Woodley says relations between the company and Yindjibarndi started to sour as far back as 2007, when Fortescue ran a bulldozer over a natural spring elders had told the company should be protected.
The dispute ended up in court as Fortescue went about building then operating the Solomon mine. So far, all rulings from the Federal and High Court are heavily in favour of YAC.to the Yindjibarndi, and effectively recognised them as private owners with a spiritual connection that allowed them to decide who came onto the land.The West Australian government then sided with the YAC in opposing Fortescue’s application to the High Court.
The gas-fired power station at Solomon will also supply Fortescue’s new $US3.6 billion-plus Iron Bridge magnetite operations, about 145 kilometres south of Port Hedland, until a planned switch to renewal energy. Adams doesn’t have much good to say about Woodley, accusing him of talking down to elders and not listening to those who want to work with Fortescue.
Yindjibarndi men Michael Woodley. Stanley Warrie and Middleton Cheedy on the balcony of the former Victoria Hotel in Roebourne.The hotel once sold more alcohol than just about any other licensed premises in WA. It was the scene of a fight between locals and off-duty police officers in 1983 that led to the arrest of John Pat, who later died with terrible injuries in an incident that helped to trigger the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.
In return for continued rail access across Yindjibarndi land to deliver iron ore to the ports at Cape Lambert and Dampier, Rio will pay $10 million a year into a Yindjibarndi nation-building fund on top of rail royalties. The rail royalty funds are earmarked to help community members with their everyday needs, while the nation-building monies will be directed toward housing, education, health, culture, business capability and other projects.
Fortescue is against paying royalties and, around the same time as the talks broke down, Forrest made his position clear on both royalties and welfare.
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