South Australia is home to over 30 First Nations language groups, each with distinct cultural practices, heritage and languages. For more than 60 thousand years one of the continent’s most significant First Nations trade and communications routes has been connected to the Artesian Basin’s Mound Springs found across northern South Australia (SA), including on Arabana Country.
This region is culturally invaluable and contains many significant First Nations cultural heritage sites, including Arkaroo Rock, Ikara, Calperum Station and Kati Thanda, with current evidence dating the oldest site to at least 45,000 years. Ngaut Ngaut Conservation Park is sacred as the birthplace of the Black Duck Dreaming, and was also the site of the first modern archaeological dig in Australia along the lower reaches of the Murrundi (Murray) River on Ngarrindjeri land. It was one of the most densely populated regions of the country until the British invasion in 1788, which marked the beginning of dispossession and genocide of the First Nations peoples of the area.
In addition to high profile areas of First Nations cultural heritage that are recognised by mainstream archaeology as sites of significance (mostly due to the presence of artefacts), there are thousands of landscapes across South Australia that hold great meaning for Traditional Owners and First Nations communities. These sites are places that hold intangible cultural heritage, including places of ceremony, songlines, ancestral beings and dreaming stories.
Like elsewhere across the continent, settler colonial occupation in SA was a brutal and ongoing act of dispossession. Its historical engagement with First Nations peoples, however, differed markedly from other states, at least in theory.
In 1835, the Colonisation Commission was informed that King William IV had no intention to approve ‘any act of injustice’ toward First Nations peoples in the area with many believing that King William IV issued “clear instructions there should be treaties and bargains entered into“. Subsequent efforts to have the colony’s Foundation Act amended to reflect these sentiments failed.
To this day there is still legal wrangling over the Letters Patent, a regulatory document issued prior to British settlement. This document promised protection to First Nations peoples’ ‘actual occupation and enjoyment’ of their land’, with the commissioners undertaking to negotiate for land and compensate those who ceded their land.
Over one hundred years later, South Australia took a national lead in land rights legislation with the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1966 that consolidated all existing Aboriginal reserve lands under control of a board that included Aboriginal representatives. While sites of concern still remain, South Australia has seen a handful of positive news stories in recent years, where Traditional Owners have successfully lobbied against potential industrial development or destructive environmental practice.
In 2023, the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee was repealed to make way for South Australia’s landmark introduction of a First Nations Voice to Parliament. One of the Committee’s last pieces of work was the Inquiry into Aboriginal Heritage. Spurred on, like many other jurisdictions, by the outrage over the destruction of Juukan Gorge, the need for reform was starkly emphasised in the House of Assembly by the member for Giles who stated that:
The overwhelming stakeholder views received by this committee are that this outdated legislation does not reflect modern-day community expectations for cultural heritage protection. It was enacted prior to native title recognition and requires urgent reform.
The Inquiry’s report set out a number of recommendations on First Nations cultural heritage protection, most notably:
The South Australian Government has made some progress following this report. In September 2024, the South Australian Parliament passed a series of amendments enhancing penalty and enforcement provisions, as well as focusing on clearer reporting requirements and enhanced powers for inspectors. These penalties apply to offences of “damaging, disturbing or interfering with Aboriginal heritage” incurring up to 2 million in fines for companies or $250,000 and/or imprisonment for 2 years for individuals as well as new provisions for compensation towards First Nations groups when the Act has been breached.
The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Kyam Maher echoed support for cultural heritage reform:
By legislating a ten-fold increase in penalties for some offences, we are sending a clear message that Aboriginal heritage is to be both protected and respected.
With South Australia currently the only state with a Voice to Parliament, the possibility of further reform to strengthen First Nations cultural heritage protection remains hopeful.
Currently, there are significant threats to registered cultural heritage and First Nations sacred sites within the Australian Defence Force missile training area of the Woomera Prohibited Area. More than 200 culturally significant sites have been identified within the Woomera site, large sections of which overlap with the Kokatha Native Title determination.
The sacred trees and surrounding dune system are linked to the Tjukurpa, or storylines, of the Kokatha people. They play a role in the Seven Sisters dreaming, a creation story with shared elements that are important to many Aboriginal groups across Australia. The site is also home to ‘very rare’ archaeologically significant stone hut foundations, thought to be up to 50,000 years old.
In January 2021, a group of Kokotha Traditional Owners conducting heritage site inspections discovered an unexploded high tech missile. In September 2021, two Respected Senior Lore men from SA’s Western Desert region filed a landmark complaint with the OECD about the corporate practices of the missile manufacturers. There have been several reports of bomb fragments, shrapnel and carbon fibre littering sacred sites.
The Wire’s thorough analysis of SA Government and Australia’s Defence Force actions revealed a culture of impunity and serious conflicts of interest in regards to Kokotha peoples rights. Arena outlines the case here.
In a 2024 media release, the Deputy PM and Defence Minister Richard Marles announced the Federal Government had commissioned an independent review into the ‘settings’ of the Woomera Prohibited Area, to “ensure it remains fit for purpose and meets Australia’s national security requirements”. The crux of this review is a response to the sunsetting (and as a result, forced update) of the Woomera Prohibited Area Rule 2014, which establishes a “coexistence framework” which “aims to balance interests of all users”, including the views of Traditional Owners but also additional factors like pastoral work and mining, scientific research and tourism.
The Minister did not directly mention the controversy over the unexploded missile in his statement, but he did acknowledge the significance of the region to Traditional Owners and First Nations cultural heritage. It remains to be seen whether upcoming recommendations adequately address the protection of First Nations sacred sites under a new defence coexistence arrangement.
A $3 billion dollar and 12,000 home housing project near the suburbs of Riverlea and Buckland Park became a controversial venture in 2023, after the remains of at least 29 First Nations people were uncovered. Work was stopped at two sites and under the direction of Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation (KYAC) and Kaurna elders, the remains were exhumed with the intention of being reburied at a site nearby the project.
The community’s preferred position was that the ancestors remain in their burial ground and not be removed from Riverlea…However, under the circumstances and with the support of Kaurna elders, we have made the difficult decision to respectfully exhume the remains to ensure their protection.
Tim Agius, KYAC chair
However, this decision has proved highly controversial. Protestors have raised frustrations over a lack of consultation with the community and Kaurna peoples, who felt strongly that the bones should not have been disturbed. The extension of the consultation period also spurred backlash from Traditional Owners, with concerns over a lack of cultural safety in the consultation process and a perception that the Aboriginal Affairs minister was breaching his legislative obligation to offer meaningful consultation before making any decisions regarding the site.
The project has since been authorised to continue operations by the Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher, with the imposition of 25 conditions including the creation of a Kaurna Memorial Resting Place at the site of discovery, mandatory reporting if any more remains are uncovered, satellite photography to identify other at risk sites, among other conditions.
This case raises significant concerns over whether current South Australian legislation adequately mitigates the risk posed by government backed development colliding with sacred burial customs and heritage sites.
There are two stories to tell of the Ngarrawa (sacred mound springs) of the region around Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre) in far northern South Australia. Ngarrawa are the natural outlets for the pressurised ground water of the 1.76 million square million kilometres of the Great Artesian Basin, one of the largest of its kind in the world. Arabana Aboriginal Corporation describe mound springs as “precious water holes that spread far and wide across our Country. The springs are central to our culture, and they help sustain life in our beautiful, dessert lands.”
One story tells of the thousands of years the Arabana people have lived around a supply of potable water that ‘provided the environmental basis for a rich and multi-layered transport and communication corridor through otherwise inhospitable desert country’. The region is rich in songline history,with archaeological evidence indicating it was a centre of interconnected trade routes that crisscrossed the nation.
One spring site – the Finniss Springs Mission, located in the centre of Arabana land – was significant in providing a place where traditional life and culture could be practiced despite ongoing colonial dispossession. In 2012, after nearly a decade and a half of deliberation, the Arabana people won Native Title over a significant area between Lake Torrens, Coober Pedy and Oodnadatta.
The Arabana Rangers Healthy Country Plan speaks to a vision of:
…knowledge keepers and our protectors of Country, language, culture and story working together, and with new beginnings connect our children and grandchildren to our sands.
The other story is much shorter and concerns the extraction of water from the Great Artesian Basin which covers parts of SA, NT, QLD and NSW. Water extraction, which began in the late 19th century, has increased significantly since large scale mining exploration began in the mid 20th century. Colin Harris’ paper Culture and Geography reports some of the positive measures taken since the 1980s on conservation and management of water drawdown. However, the last twenty years have seen springs disappearing due to industries such as mining, pastoralists and petrochemical companies. The special legislation of 1982, Roxby Downs Indenture Ratification (created to fast-track and protect the establishment and operation of the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine) is still in place. The Arabana people fear more springs will disappear with significant reduction to their vitality and ecological viability. The uncertainty of future water reliability is exacerbated by the proposal of BHP’s mega Olympic Dam project.
Kimba reached national headlines in November 2021 as the site selected for Australia’s proposed purpose built facility for nuclear waste management. The announcement brought a six year negotiation to a conclusion. Kimba is a small township in the Upper Eyre Peninsula region of SA. For over 40 years, successive Federal Governments have attempted to identify such a site, along the way enacting the National Radioactive Waste Management Act (2012) and developing guidelines to address the key issues of safety, cultural heritage, environment, social and economic impact, facility land requirements and consultation. The Federal Government claims to have acted within the guidelines throughout the site selection process.
Since Kimba was first proposed as a potential site, the Barngarla People who hold Native Title rights over the ‘determined area’ of the site have opposed it. They were excluded from community voting because eligibility criteria for the local government electoral roll meant that Native Title holders were excluded from the ballot. In late 2021, the Barngarla Corporation launched legal action to block the decision. An informative and detailed account of this dispute can be read here.
In 2023 the Federal Courts made a major ruling in favour of the Barngala People, finding that the nuclear waste facility could not be built on that site. In a powerful statement, justice Natalie Charlesworth argued that former Coalition resources minister Keith Pitt showed “pre-judgement” and “apprehended bias” in regards to the proposed site, therefore providing the basis for blocking the proposal. While the decision was divisive among some landowners and politicians such as Rowan Ramsey, the ruling was celebrated by Barngarla traditional owners.
Today, this ends, and I thank everyone who has been with us along the way…We are grateful as First Nations people that our voice has been heard, that our commitment to country, our heritage and culture has led us to today’s historical result.
Jason Bilney, Chairperson of the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation
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