The battle to stop the building of Defence Housing at Lee Point has continued, with Larrakia young people calling on the real estate agency involved to "not destroy sacred Larrakia land".
The 132 hectares of old growth coastal bushland on Larrakia Country in Darwin has been slated to be cleared by Defence Housing Australia (DHA) to build 800 houses for the military and their families.
In July last year, independent Senator Lidia Thorpe tabled a petition in Federal Parliament, calling for the return of Darwin's Binybara/Lee Point to Larrakia people.
Started by Larrakia artist and performer Laniyuk, the petition has more than 16,000 signatures stating their opposition to the controversial DHA development.
Lee Point, which is sacred to Larrakia people, is home to over 250 species of birds, as well as native food and medicines, and trees more than 400 years old, Laniyuk said.
It is home to the Kenbi Dreaming track and the Gouldian finch, which is listed as endangered according to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, with its development causing consternation amongst Traditional Owners and environmental groups, seeing conflicts between people defending the site, and police.
First National Real Estate O'Donoghues are the real estate agency working with DHA to facilitate the sale of properties on Lee Point. Advertising material for the development features both the First National and DHA logos.
"For years Larrakia Elders and the Darwin community have been calling on the Federal government, the NT government and Defence Housing Australia to stop their destruction at Lee Point," Laniyuk said.
"What we're asking for is for them to engage in conversations with Larrakia families about how we can protect that special and sacred land for the benefit of everyone, forever."
Larrakia young people gifted O'Donoghues a plant native to Larrakia Country, asking them to "join that conversion too".
"This land is too important to be destroyed for the military and First National's profit," Laniyuk said, arguing the development wasn't being built with the views of Larrakia in mind.
Due in part to the ongoing impacts of colonisation, the median income for First Nations people in Darwin was less than $40,000, they said.
"There are over 13,000 people in the NT who are houseless — most of them are Aboriginal. These $850,000 houses won't provide homes for them," Laniyuk said.
"The truth is this project is extracting wealth by selling fly-in, fly-out populations beach houses on stolen Larrakia land. Lee Point needs to be returned to Larrakia care and protection - not turned into empty holiday homes."
In 2023, the Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation, the peak representative body of the Larrakia people, withdrew their support for the project, whilst last year, the Northern Land Council (NLC) slammed the Federal Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, for not protecting the area, and throwing their support behind calls by Larrakia Traditional Owners for an independent inquiry into unlawful land clearing.
Larrakia locals have also called for the Casuarina Coastal Reserve in Darwin to be returned to their ownership in a submission to the Northern Territory government. A petition calling for the return of both the reserve and Lee Point to the Larrakia people was tabled in NT Parliament in December.
It came as, despite DHA engaging in clearing bushland on the point without all the necessary approvals and breaching the Northern Territory's Planning Act, the government body responsible – the Development Consent Authority (DCA) - declined to prosecute or take any further action against DHA.
At the time, Larrakia Elder, Aunty June Mills said: "All land is sacred, but some land is more important than others and Lee Point happens to be one of those places."
"As Larrakia people, we look at land in a different way. We don't look at land like that's a good block to put a building on or that's a good place to whack a road. The land tells us what it wants to be, and we listen."
