The 1998 agreement covers the Karratha Gas Plant, which processes 14 per cent of WA domestic gas, and was written more than a decade after scores of sacred Indigenous sites had been demolished by its construction. The deal, viewed by the ABC, included a lump sum of $500,000 'as compensation for deprivation of any possession of land or waters' and released the gas joint venturers of liability for damaging the area's Aboriginal rock art. By NYFL's calculation, that compensation equates to about $50 to $100 per cultural site affected; the foundation estimates 1,700 engravings were moved and thousands more destroyed to build the onshore processing facilities.
Woodside is seeking to shore up gas production at the facility by tapping the Browse Basin off the Kimberley coast and pumping the resource via a 900km pipeline. The project is expected to cost upwards of $50 billion, and according to Deloitte modelling, generate more than $141 billion in gross domestic product over a 31-year span.
The ABC understands NYFL tabled a new agreement at a meeting with Woodside executives last November, calling for $30 million a year on the assumption currently approved gas fields will deplete within the next 10. Woodside countered in May with an offer of $20 million cash for the same period, on top of the terms agreed in 1998, plus 20 homes over 10 years and $400,000 annually to manage the properties.
NYFL chief executive Sean Paul Stephens said the organisation had formally asked government not to approve Woodside's bid for Browse while talks were at an impasse. 'It is being locked out of the engine room that people describe the Pilbara to be,' he said. 'The life expectancy for First Nations men in the Pilbara is almost 30 years less than a non-Indigenous person like myself, and that tells us that the system is broken.'
Woodside said it was 'proud' of its long-standing relationship with NYFL but acknowledged the negotiations. 'The North West Shelf Project recognises that expectations and standards for agreement making with Aboriginal communities have evolved significantly since 1998 and is working with NYFL to modernise the arrangements,' a spokesperson said.
Elder and NYFL director Ricky Smith said: 'Ngurra (country) is the main thing for our people: to have our country, not to be destroyed, not to be touched or damaged.' Former NYFL chairperson Clinton Walker said elders did not understand the 1998 deal. 'We were forced with gag clauses … we couldn't speak up for what we wanted,' he said. A Woodside spokesperson said the agreement was fairly understood under the future act stipulations of the Native Title Act 1993, and all signatories received independent professional advice.
The deal also included $2.5 million for the Roebourne Cultural Centre, along with 'goodwill' annual donations of $1.25 million, partly indexed to inflation. In 2019, Woodside said it updated some conditions after NYFL declared insolvency. NYFL correspondence obtained by the ABC said Woodside currently provided the foundation about $1.7 million each year, unlike value-based royalties paid by other Pilbara mining companies.
Before federal Environment Minister Murray Watt approved a 40-year extension of the North West Shelf in 2025, NYFL wrote to state and federal environment ministers seeking support for a new deal but never received a response. Watt approved the extension with 48 conditions aimed at protecting surviving rock art on Murujuga, which received a UNESCO World Heritage listing shortly after, but did not mandate a modern agreement with NYFL. Woodside is now awaiting permission to breach Australia's largest undeveloped gas reserve in the Browse Basin. NYFL says Browse must not be approved with the 1998 agreement unresolved.