By MICHAEL SLOVANOS
THE scene was what one might expect from the ABC – an obviously sympathetic radio reporter talks with Michael Woodley, CEO of the Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation (aka AbCorp), under trees beside a bubbling creek about AbCorp’s big win in court against a white fella’s mining company and the WA State Government.
It’s the usual AbCorp spin: Our people have been living peacefully on country, in harmony with our sacred sites and water spirits, until white man turned up with his machines. A rival corporation has a totally different approach.
In this case the company is Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), which, under a deal with the rival Wirlu Murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation, dug up and mined, allegedly without permission, a portion of the 13,000 square kilometres of land that Woodley’s Abcorp has claimed under Native Title.
Wirlu Murra is based in Roebourne, and was formed in 2010 when they struck independent land use deals with FMG. The ABC Business report did not mention them because they are apparently blacklisted because of their dealings with FMG.
Wirlu Murra have a much more pragmatic approach than Woodley’s mob, and run businesses including an earthmoving outfit and bus company that transports workers to and from FMG’s Solomon mine at the centre of the dispute.
“We proudly generate our income from the successful delivery of business contracts. We are the only 100% self-sustainable Community Organisation in Roebourne,” the corporation says on its website. The businesses are run by Wirlu-Murra Enterprises Pty Ltd.
Wirlu-Murra Enterprises Pty Ltd has an impressive fleet of ten 55-seat CBI buses under a five five-year contract with FMG for
taking workers to and from the Solomon mine site.
Federal Court Justice Stephen Burley awarded the Yindjibarndi a cool $150 million for “cultural loss” and $100,000 for economic loss, the largest court-ordered native title compensation in Australian history. The case ran for 14 years.
But Woodley tells the ABC he is not impressed with the $151.1 million and might launch an appeal. After all, what’s a mere $150 million for an AbCorp that annually shares in some $32 billion dished out by the Federal Government across the board for Aboriginal services.
No doubt Woodley and his two AbCorps (the other one is Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation) also need a lot more than a $150 million to build their “nation” – that’s right, they are building some sort of nation up there in the Pilbara on their 13,000 square km. “We are supporting a homeland movement that will enable Yindjibarndi people to return to their country to live,” the AbCorp states on its website.
Woodley claims as his home the small community of Ngurrawaana, which was established by his grandfather. It is one and a half hours’ drive inland from either Roebourne or Karratha.
The population is only 25, but if they and a few others making up the Yindjibarndi “nation” divvy up the $150 million between them, there’s going to be some very wealthy folk living in the WA outback. That, of course, won’t happen, because AbCorp bureaucracies soak up the money to pay their corporate staff and run their various programs.
Could it be that Woodley and company have their eyes on some sort of billion dollar-plus settlement from FMG, whose net profit was more than $AUD4.8 billlion for the year to June 2025 from revenue of more than $15 billion? After all, sealed roads and parliament houses for “nations” don’t come cheap.
In fact in the court case, Yindjibarndi Corporation sought compensation of over $1.8 billion – $1 billion for cultural loss and over $800 million for economic loss. The state and Fortescue argued that compensation for cultural loss should be in the $5 million to $10 million range, while economic loss should be limited to the freehold value of the land.
So what about the Wirlu Murra Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation from Roebourne, the mob that the ABC would rather not talk about.
Back in 2015 ABC reported that a Federal Court judge Justice Steven Rares told the court that “FMG orchestrated the convening of the meeting” to set up the Roebourne group in 2010, along with the voting procedure “to a considerable degree”.
“The meeting and voting arrangements were sophisticated and organised through the active involvement of FMG,” he said.
“Significantly, each of the members … who gave oral evidence accepted that no one at the meeting would have been aware that FMG had played any role in the logistics or arrangement of the meeting or in apparently supporting the pursuit of the resolutions that were proposed.”
So the Wirlu Murra mob did the unforgiveable, by doing business deals with Fortescue, and commendably, running its corporation from the proceeds of its businesses.
Andrew Forrest’s FMG was accused of unauthorised mining of hundreds of millions of tonnes of iron ore from Yindjibarndi land since 2013, generating tens of billions in revenue. The court found the company’s Solomon Hub mines caused significant damage to sacred sites and cultural heritage, with 124 of 240 sites completely destroyed.
The Yindjibarndi mob first lodged their native title claim in 2003, gaining exclusive rights in 2017 after years of court battles, but by that time Fortescue had already developed the Solomon Hub mines, backed by state approvals and an agreement with the Wirlu Murra mob.
Failed negotiations over royalties and compensation led to the 14-year legal battle, culminating in the 2022 filing for court-determined compensation.
Yindjibarndi Abcorp leaders welcomed the ruling as a milestone for “First Nations rights” but criticised the award as inadequate given Fortescue’s estimated $80 billion in profits from the mine, ABC reported.
“Woodley called the economic loss component disappointing and signalled a possible appeal, saying, “We don’t get this far and stop.” Elders reportedly described the cultural damage as irreparable, with one calling the land ‘my religion’.
What the ABC is not telling us is that a lot of Kimberley Aborigines are Christians and do not subscribe to the old animistic religion that worships land and sacred sites.
If more AbCorps followed the Wirlu Murra self-sufficiency example and did practical business deals with mining companies, the cause of Aboriginal advancement would be truly well-served.
Author and former Fairfax journalist Paul Cleary claims that Fortescue’s approach – mining without consent while earning massive revenues – threatens to undermine this system. “The case sets a precedent for valuing cultural loss at a scale that may influence future negotiations and litigation,” he told AAP.
The fact that Woodley and his mob are so dismissive of a $150 million settlement indicates the scale of money flowing Abcorps Australia-wide. A recent count put the figure at $32 billion annually across the board for Aboriginal services.
So yes, a $150 million payout for some unknown West Australian Abcorp is relatively small money. What the breakaway group earned from its deal with Fortescue we don’t know. Media is not talking about them for some reason.
We do know that Fortescue has been actively employing black fellas from the north west for the past 20 years, in addition to helping them set up businesses in the supply chain. But this fact doesn’t seem to figure in the deal with Woodley and his mob.
Back in 2015 ABC reported Woodley as claiming FMG’s involvement showed it was trying to impose terms on the community.
“What the evidence disclosed in this case was that FMG orchestrated the so-called meeting as a device to impose its will on the Yindjibarndi People,” he said.
FMG strongly denied this claim and defended its role in the meeting. A spokesman said while it provided support for the company, it did not try to directly or indirectly influence the outcome of the meeting.
He said the company had no motive to influence the meeting, because it already had approval for its mines in the area.
“Fortescue has all of the approvals it requires for its operations at [its mine] Solomon, including native title approvals,” the FMG spokesman said.