Stop digging Down Under?

A professional fisherman for 40 years, Stephen Johnston likes nothing better than heading out to sea in a boat to hunt dugong, the slow-moving marine mammals related to the manatee or sea cow of the Americas.

The docile creatures may live in salt-water and graze on sea grass, but they taste nothing like fish, the Aborigine says. "If I served you some, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference from beef. It's good red meat, mate, very tasty."

But Mr. Johnston, an elder of the Yanyuwa tribe who spoke on the phone from an island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia, worries his dugong hunting days could be numbered. Like many Aborigines in the region, he is concerned that a Swiss company's plan to establish a massive open-cut lead and zinc mine near the coast will kill off not just the dugongs and the sea grass but turtles, fish, and prawns, too.

While Australia's economy is booming, thanks largely to Chinese demand for coal, iron ore, and other resources, the increased prospecting and the establishment of new mines is causing friction with indigenous communities in many remote parts of the country.

After months of controversy, the firm Xstrata was granted permission Friday by the Northern Territory regional government to go ahead with the lead and zinc mine.

"This has been a difficult issue, there is no doubt about it, [but] we have rigorously followed due process to ensure that economic gains are coupled with environmental integrity and community benefit," said the head of the Northern Territory government, Chief Minister Clare Martin.

The lead, zinc, and silver deposits lie beneath the McArthur River, so Xstrata will have to divert it by three miles and alter the course of two connecting creeks.

The Yanyuwa and their neighbors, the Gudanji tribe, say the McArthur River development is fraught with risk, including the danger of the mine's dams being inundated by floodwaters, releasing toxic materials into the environment.

During the annual wet season the McArthur becomes swollen with monsoon rains and discharges into the sea a volume of water equal to seven times the capacity of Sydney Harbor.

Another concern among the indigenous populations is a spiritual one. Aborigines worry that the diversion of the river will stir the ancient spirits said to inhabit this timeless landscape of savannah grassland, crocodile-infested swamps and billabongs (ponds).

The Gudanji believe the McArthur River is home to a giant "rainbow serpent" from the ancient Dreamtime era, when mythical beings roamed the continent. Upsetting the river serpent will bring storms, cyclones, and other disasters, they claim.

"People believe that they'll slowly die if that rainbow serpent is disturbed," says Fraser Baker, a Gudanji elder, also reached by phone. "If you start messing with it, something bad is going to happen. People think sickness will come down the river. Xstrata has done nothing for our communities, and we don't want the mine to go ahead."

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