NT government's tourism permit for Lorella Springs Wilderness Park 'in excess of its powers', federal court hears
Lorella Springs Wilderness Park covers an area of 400,000 hectares and holds dozens of sacred sites. (Supplied: Lorella Springs Wilderness Park)
In short:
The owners of Lorella Springs Wilderness Park were granted a tourism permit covering 60,000 hectares of pristine bushland in March this year.
Traditional owners and native title owners are pushing to have the permit revoked arguing it is invalid.
What’s next?
Following a three-day hearing in the Federal Court, the judge will take time to consider the evidence before making a decision next year.
The Northern Territory government acted "irrationally" and "in excess of its powers" when it granted a permit allowing tourism operations on a vast area of pristine bushland, the Federal Court has heard.
The pastoral station, known as Lorella Springs Wilderness Park, is located in remote Gulf country on the edge of Limmen National Park, and covers a huge area of 400,000 hectares.
The park is a natural wilderness home to spectacular waterfalls and billabongs as well as dozens of sacred sites and culturally significant locations.
Lorella Springs is located near to many pristine attractions in the Gulf of Carpentaria. (Supplied: Lorella Springs Wilderness Park)
In March, the NT's Pastoral Board — which is responsible for managing pastoral leases — issued a tourism permit covering 60,000 hectares of the property.
On average, 10,000 people per year visited the park, before numbers spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However in January 2023, Lorella Springs owner Rhett Walker said he was closing the door to most tourists, citing "bureaucracy" and "red tape" as becoming "too much" to sustain operations.
The decision to grant the station its tourism permit is now subject to judicial review, with the body representing Burdal, Murrungun Wunubari and Mambali Walangara native title holders arguing the decision by the board should be reversed.
Native title holders claim government 'failed to recognise rights of Aboriginal persons'
In challenging the permit in the Federal Court in Darwin this week, the body representing native title holders argued eight grounds, including that the permit was invalid and inconsistent with Australia's native title legislation.
Traditional owners argued the tourism activities would involve visitors to the park observing activities or cultural works of Aboriginal people, for example sacred rock art or dreaming locations.
It was also argued the government acted "irrationally" and "in excess of its powers" when approving the application and failed to consider "the presence of threatened species" and "environmental issues" as required under law.
Lorella Springs Wilderness Park has previously brought in about 10,000 tourists a year. (Supplied: Lorella Springs Wilderness Park )
Court documents outlining the grounds state the board "failed to recognise the rights of Aboriginal persons to follow traditional pursuits on pastoral land … by failing to take into account the potential effects of the permit upon traditional uses reserved from a pastoral lease".
The barrister representing traditional owners, Sturt Glacken KC, said the grounds for the application covered matters of "campsites, burial grounds, artefacts and rock art" and "the dangers and consequences that might follow" from unauthorised visitation to such sites.
Mr Glacken told the court "a necessary consequence" of the tourism under the permit would be observation of sacred sites even if the pastoralists took steps to stop visitors travelling to certain areas.
When asked what relief they were seeking, Mr Glacken told the court: "We seek to quash the permit as a whole."
Sturt Glacken KC (left) is representing traditional owners in their bid to have a tourism permit overturned. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)
'Vast majority' of culturally significant sites outside permit area, court hears
In a report provided to the board, authored by Mr Walker and his wife, Marie, the station owners said the activities for which the permit was being requested was "restricted to existing pastoral tracks and the homestead" that constituted less than 1 per cent of the property.
The report also stated the station owners had engaged with the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority, Northern Land Council (NLC) and traditional owners to ensure their concerns were addressed.
Rhett Walker and Marie Walker say they consulted with the relevant authorities before getting the permit. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)
During the course of the hearing, barrister for the NT government, Lachlan Spargo-Peattie told the court the "vast majority" of sacred sites existed outside the permit area, and those inside would not be observable by tourists.
In response to questions from the judge about tourism brochures which include explicit references to rock art at certain locations within the park, Mr Spargo-Peattie said the owners of Lorella Springs had "clearly indicated" they did not wish to conduct tourism operations which involved the observation of sacred sites.
"It is certainly not the main thrust of the tourism,"he said.
"This is not the archetypal case where pastoralist wants to run farm tourism and it's pointing to rock art and saying 'come look at it', that's not the intention here."
Lachlan Spargo-Peattie says the "vast majority" of sacred sites in the area are outside the permit area. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)
While acknowledging one site had been visible to tourists in the past, Mr Spargo Pettie said measures could be taken to ensure that was not the case in future.
"The mere fact that there was tourism historically when this was not regulated does not mean that tourism will happen in the same way in the same place into the future."
Judge Natalie Charlesworth is unlikely to hand down a decision until early next year.