D-Day for gas tomorrow

“Unbelievable” pressure weighs on the shoulders of traditional owners this week as they deliberate whether to sign a land use agreement with Woodside and the State for the multi-million dollar gas precinct at James Price Point.

The owners’ decision is due tomorrow.

The Goolaroobooloo and Jabbir Jabbir traditional owners, who finished years of negotiations last week, have been meeting since Monday to go over the agreement with a fine-toothed comb.

Co-chair of the Kimberley Land Council’s traditional owner negotiation committee, Frank Parriman, said the pressure was “overwhelming”.

“This will be an absolutely lifechanging decision for the Kimberley,” he said. “I can’t really believe how much pressure and responsibility we have to take in making it.”

Mr Parriman told The Broome Advertiser on Monday he was “not a betting man” but at that stage he thought the likelihood of the group signing the agreement was 50-50.

He said while the $1.2 billion deal — which included in-kind, employment opportunities and other benefits, rather than just cash — was “comfortable”, there were other concerns the claim group needed to take into consideration.

“We need to be satisfied that all the boxes we’ve put up are ticked — and we are mainly worrying about environmental assurances, keeping the size of the (project’s) precinct down, and heritage,” he said.

Friday’s vote will require a majority of the claim group members — understood to number about 600. Mr Parriman said earlier this week there had only been about 150 people at the meetings, but more were expected to be arriving now.

This week’s deliberations followed stormy meetings the week before, with up to 80 Native Title claimants storming out of one in disgust, hours after learning the State intended to proceed with compulsory acquisition of land for the project, should they refuse to sign the agreement.