A Federal Court challenge against a massive gas project off the Tiwi Islands is starting to wrap up in Darwin with closing arguments to start on Wednesday.
Tiwi Islander Dennis Tipakalippa is fighting the national gas regulator’s decision to allow Santos to drill eight wells in the Barossa gas field, 265 kilometres northwest of Darwin.
The Munupi elder says he was not consulted over the company’s environmental plan and fears the project could damage his people’s sea-country.
Over the past two days, the court has sat in Melville Island and Darwin as Justice Mordecai Bromberg heard from several witnesses in words, song and dance.
The court was told about the Munupi people’s connection to the land and sea, and how they feared the Santos project would damage the environment and impact their way of life and spiritual wellbeing.
Marine ranger James De Santis also gave evidence that the offshore gas project would cut into the migration path of the vulnerable olive ridley sea turtle.
The drilling would also disrupt the sea floor and a chemical spill would have a devastating effect on the thriving marine ecosystem, Mr De Santis said.
“There’s too much to lose out there if anything goes wrong,” he told the court on Tuesday.
“It will be a great big loss for myself, my children and my grandchildren, right through generations of Tiwi people.”
Santos, which is Australia’s second-largest independent gas producer, has said it would “vigorously defend” the Barossa project, and that it had all necessary approvals following consultation with stakeholders.
The $US3.6 billion ($A5.2 billion) offshore natural gas development is expected to create up to 600 jobs and pipe gas 280km to the Darwin LNG facility, with first production expected in 2025.
The company says the project, which it purchased from ConocoPhillips in 2020, is 43 per cent complete and on schedule. The drilling that is the subject of the court case started in July.
Lawyers representing the Tiwi Islanders and Santos will begin their closing submissions in the Federal Court on Wednesday morning.
