Larrakia custodians seek heritage listing to stop Lee Point housing project

Two Larrakia custodians have requested an emergency heritage listing by the Commonwealth in an attempt to prevent the federal government from building a large housing estate at Darwin's Lee Point.

Lorraine Williams and Tibby Quall argued in their application to the Australian Heritage Council and the federal environment minister that the site approved for 600 private and 200 defence personnel houses should be protected as the "Binybara cultural heritage landscape" for its Indigenous, biodiversity and historical values.

"Hopefully we'll achieve protection for the entire area so that it's not developed, and is left to be natural bush because the land is culturally significant to us and our culture and history," Ms Williams said.

"Our culture and our language is written into our lands; this Binybara land has a lot of stories written into it, and a lot of people want to protect it."

Ms Williams said the housing estate would interfere with the registered Binybara Larrakia sacred site, a rock reef off Lee Point beach, and a sacred women's site in the development area.

"Because we don't have land rights in Darwin, we don't have native title, we're using all of the different acts that are available to us, and this is why we are having to try to protect Binybara under the heritage legislation that's available to us, and we'll keep on fighting until we get full rights to this land," she said.

During land clearing of one block of its planned 132-hectare development, the federal government developer Defence Housing Australia uncovered Indigenous cultural artefacts including a grinding stone.

Last week, Defence Housing Australia, which has so far built five houses at the site, announced it had revised its Lee Point plan to address biodiversity and sacred site concerns, but Ms Williams said the revisions did not go far enough.

Emergency application could halt work

The Larrakia custodians' lawyer, Ally McAlpine from Environmental Justice Australia, said the heritage nomination included a request for a provisional emergency listing to try to stop further work while the full application was considered.

"This application isn't just about individual sites or objects; it's considering the whole of the peninsula and the particular cultural significance it has to the Larrakia people, its military history significance and its biodiversity and its ecological significance," she said.

The custodians have argued Lee Point is worthy of joining the six other Northern Territory places on the 127-place national heritage list, which include Kakadu National Park, the Hermannsburg Historic Precinct and Wave Hill Walk Off Route.

Nominations for heritage listing are assessed by the Australian Heritage Council, and then referred to the federal environment minister for acceptance or rejection.

The Heritage Council's criteria for acceptance include that the place has "outstanding value to the nation" because of its "uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia's natural or cultural history" or a "strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons".

To reach the list threshold, a place must have "outstanding heritage value to the Australian community as a whole".

The Heritage Council also considers whether it is more significant compared to other similar places.

Charles Darwin University scientists have assessed Lee Point's tropical eucalyptus woodland habitat as being one of the few remaining Darwin coastal habitats that are important for the survival of endangered species including the black-footed tree rat and the Gouldian finch. 

"I want the government to acknowledge that those animals and plants are actually important to Larrakia people and our culture — they are part of our biocultural knowledge and biocultural heritage," Ms Williams said.

Proponents of the housing estate have argued that some of Lee Point's habitat was previously cleared for World War II defence fortifications, the area already hosts a caravan park, and the housing would not interfere with the Binybara site off the coast.

Emergency national heritage nominations have halted developments in the past, including the listing of Tasmania's Tarkine in 2009, which stopped a commercial tourism road and the 2017 listing of Melbourne's St Kilda area, which forced major changes to a railway.