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One Australian Aboriginal thwarts AREVA’s uranium mining plans

”Jeffrey Lee has put country and culture ahead of personal profit and his vision means this magnificent place will be protected for all people and all time,”

Owner wants uranium-rich land to be added to Kakadu, Sydney Morning Herald, LINDSAY MURDOCH IN KAKADUMay 29, 2010 The world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park will be expanded to include thousands of hectares of ecologically sensitive land that contains uranium worth billions of dollars. In a generous act, the Aboriginal traditional owner, Jeffrey Lee, has offered the land to the federal government so that it can become part of Kakadu, where he works as a ranger.

Mr Lee, the shy sole member of the Djok clan and senior custodian of the land known as Koongarra, could have become one of Australia’s richest men if he had allowed the French energy giant Areva to extract 14,000 tonnes of uranium from its mineral lease in the area.

“I’m not interested in money. I’ve got a job. I can buy tucker; I can go fishing and hunting. That’s all that matters to me,” Mr Lee told the Herald in a rare interview in 2007.

The Northern Land Council, an organisation that represents Aboriginal groups in northern Australia, has written to the federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, offering the land on behalf of Mr Lee, the Herald has learnt. For years the pro-mining council delayed passing on the offer to the government as Areva held out hopes of extracting the uranium from its 12.5-square-kilometre lease.

But despite what Mr Lee, 39, described as “enormous pressure” on him “for a long time” he refused to be swayed in his determination to see the land become part of Kakadu………….

The Koongarra deposit is only three kilometres from Nourlangie Rock, one of the most visited attractions in Kakadu.

According to Aboriginal beliefs, the land includes places where the rainbow serpent entered the ground, a giant blue-tongue lizard still lurks and should not be disturbed, and art that was painted on rocks hundreds, perhaps tens of thousands of years ago.

The Australian Conservation Foundation – a long-time critic of uranium mining – said the government should now move quickly to incorporate the land into Kakadu. ”Jeffrey Lee has put country and culture ahead of personal profit and his vision means this magnificent place will be protected for all people and all time,” said the foundation’s nuclear campaigner, Dave Sweeney.

Owner wants uranium-rich land to be added to Kakadu

May 29, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, indigenous issues | antinuclear, AREVA, AUSTRALIA, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium