• The remote airstrip that was part of the Ichthys story before Ichthys existed
• “Simply setting an employment target doesn’t solve that problem”
• She started in a male-dominated industry in her 30s. Then she started winning awards

Senior INPEX executive Bill Townsend has told the AEMEE conference in Rubibi (Broome) this week that the next era of Indigenous participation in resources belongs to Aboriginal organisations that own assets and lead their regional economies."The next era should not simply be about Aboriginal people participating in someone else's economy," Mr Townsend, INPEX's Senior Vice President Corporate, said."It should be about Aboriginal organisations owning assets, building businesses, developing expertise, creating opportunity, and helping shape the economic future of their regions."

Mr Townsend was speaking at his first AEMEE conference, held under the theme The Next Era. He named Djarindjin on the Dampier Peninsula as his model.

INPEX's relationship with Djarindjin goes back more than 25 years. In 2000, Djarindjin Airport supported INPEX's exploration drilling in the Browse Basin, the campaign that led to the discovery of the Ichthys field.

"So Djarindjin has quite literally been part of the Ichthys story from the very beginning," Mr Townsend said.

In 2009, INPEX signed an agreement with the Djarindjin Aboriginal Corporation that gave its helicopters priority access during cyclone season, so crews could be evacuated from offshore drilling when severe weather approached. During the installation, hook-up and commissioning of Ichthys LNG in 2017 and 2018, INPEX helicopters refuelled at the airport four or five times a day.

"Throughout all of that, the airport did not miss a beat," he said.

In 2018, the corporation took 100 per cent ownership of the airport from Broome International Airport. Mr Townsend spoke at the ceremony.

"It had taken vision, courage, determination, and above all, strong leadership," he said.

He spent the days before the conference in Djarindjin with AEMEE board members, and said the community's ambition about what comes next stood out to him more than how far it had come. He acknowledged Djarindjin Aboriginal Corporation chair Brian Lee and CEO Nathan McIvor, and took up Mr McIvor's argument against the deficit discourse that surrounds Aboriginal economic development.

"This is not a story about disadvantage. It's a story about capability, about enterprise, about self-determination, and about leadership," Mr Townsend said.

"That to me is what economic self-determination looks like."

He then turned to INPEX's own processes. Mr Townsend said technical capability, safety, commercial readiness and scale all limit who can enter the energy supply chain, and that the company has a responsibility to examine its part in that.

"We have a responsibility to examine the barriers within our own processes and determine where we can help build capability rather than simply waiting for it to appear," he said.

"Because the objective shouldn't simply be to increase Indigenous procurement statistics. It should be to help build strong, competitive, and sustainable businesses."

He gave the same candid assessment of employment.

"But let me be candid. This isn't always easy," he said. "Ichthys LNG is a highly technical operation. Many roles require specialist qualifications, technical expertise, and significant on-the-job experience. Simply setting an employment target doesn't solve that problem."

Between 2023 and 2025, 60 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joined INPEX directly, several through its Solid Pathways program.

One is Yinjibarndi woman Diane Degan, who joined INPEX through Solid Pathways in 2019 in her 30s and became Australia's first female Aboriginal crane operator. In 2024 she won the Outstanding Operator award at the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA Women in Resources Awards, chosen from 144 nominations.

Another is Broome's Neil Bowles, a Yawuru, Bardi and Kija man who spent more than 12 years offshore before joining INPEX as an offtake coordinator trainee in 2023. He now helps schedule LNG, LPG and condensate cargoes bound for customers across the Indo-Pacific.

"When you create a genuine pathway and back people to succeed, capability follows," Mr Townsend said.

INPEX began its Reconciliation Action Plan journey in 2013 with a Reflect RAP, and will launch its seventh RAP, its fourth at Stretch level, later this year.

"Reconciliation cannot sit alongside the business," Mr Townsend said. "It needs to become part of the business: part of how we employ people, part of how we engage suppliers, part of how we build partnerships, and ultimately part of how we define success."

In Darwin, where the Ichthys onshore LNG plant sits on Larrakia country, INPEX formalised its relationship with the Larrakia Development Corporation through a 2009 MOU covering cultural heritage, training, employment and business. The Larrakia Foundation Trust followed in 2018, and an INPEX Larrakia Advisory Committee gives Larrakia people a direct role in setting its priorities.

In Broome this year, INPEX signed a three-year partnership with the Shire of Broome to help deliver its youth plan and community events, and is helping fund an aerial survey of dugongs across the Kimberley.

INPEX marks 40 years in Australia this year. Mr Townsend said the company's Japanese heritage gives it an instinct for the long view, and common ground with First Nations cultures.

"While Japanese and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are different, I think there is something profoundly important in the shared value placed on relationships, respect, community, and what we leave to future generations," he said.

"If we bring that same ambition, those same high expectations, and that same commitment to genuine partnership to the years ahead, I think the next era can be extraordinary."