Article by Tom Zaumayr for Business News

A newly formed nationwide group will seek to present a unified voice to protect and consult on sea country, where flashpoints between traditional owners and industry are emerging.

A newly formed nationwide group will seek to present a unified voice to protect and consult on sea country, where flashpoints between traditional owners and industry are emerging.

The National Sea Country Alliance’s first leaders – Mabuyag Ki ai woman Heron Loban, from the Torres Strait Islands, and Yamatji-Nanda man Gareth Ogilvie from Western Australia – were sworn in to their roles on Tuesday.

Core to the alliance will be a mandate to ensure government policy and regulation recognises sea country rights as a place that sustains plants, animals, people and culture.

Mr Ogilvie said it was time Indigenous people were given the same rights to protect sea country as they were on land.

“Our connection to sea country is as important as it is to land, and yet, the protections that recognise our rights aren’t the same,” he said.

“For over 65,000 years traditional owners have cared for sea country, ensuring that the ecosystems thrived, and cultural connections remained strong.

“Australia’s bountiful oceans, with diverse species of animals and plants, were sustainably managed by our people for far, far longer than they have been managed by others.”

The group’s formation comes after a year in which oil and gas companies operating off the Australian coast were tested by traditional owners.

A high-profile court case between some Tiwi Island traditional owners and Santos over the $5.5 billion Barossa gas pipeline was last month quashed, with the Federal Court lifting an injunction preventing construction.

Allegations of witness coaching and lying to Tiwi residents have since damaged the reputation of – and risked government funding for – the Environmental Defenders Office, which represented traditional owners on the case.

In September 2023, Mardudhunera woman Raelene Cooper won a legal bid to invalidate Woodside’s seismic testing application off the Pilbara coast after successfully arguing the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority should not have approved the work as she had not been adequately consulted.

Woodside argued it had consulted with more than 80 stakeholders, including traditional owners and environmental groups, and has since won approval to conduct seismic testing for the $12 billion Scarborough project.

The alliance has hinted wind projects have also created uncertainty.

“Our Songlines connect the heart of Australia to the Australian coastline as it once was, now far out at sea,” Dr Loban said.

“Our islands are connected to each other and to the mainland through our dreaming and our stories.

“We understand sea country and terrestrial country as one.”

The alliance has begun discussions with government, international traditional owners, industry and community.