The company running the Arnhem Space Centre has announced it is abandoning the Northern Territory and moving rocket-launching operations to Queensland, claiming its planned expansion of the Arnhem facility has been met with delays in acquiring approvals from the Northern Land Council.

Equatorial Launch Australia, which previously moved its business headquarters from Darwin to Adelaide in 2022, announced on its website it is now eyeing Weipa, Queensland as its preferred location for rocket operations.

But the NLC challenged ELA’s statement, saying it contained a number of inaccuracies and “unfairly blamed” the NLC for delays.

ELA said the NLC was responsible for a “delay to late 2025 to allow consultation with traditional owner groups [which] had the potential to put ELA in breach of its contractual obligations with launch clients and jeopardised a previously secured major funding round”.

“Accordingly, management and the board of ELA were left with no option other than to…abandon negotiations to seek an alternate equatorial site in Queensland,” ELA said in the statement.

“The decision came after the NLC failed to meet its own specified deadline for the approval of the head lease for the fourth time over the last 12 months in October, 2024.

“ELA is saddened that the more than $100m investment that ELA was making in the East Arnhem region, and the projected $3.6 billion in direct economic stimulus, local job creation, and support for local and regional students in STEM projects, as well as the long-term opportunities that were forecast over the life of the proposed lease, will now no longer materialise.”

ELA gained international attention in 2022 for hosting three NASA rocket launches at the Arnhem Space Centre, marking the organisation’s first launches outside of the United States.

The former NT Labor Government allocated $5 million in taxpayer funds to ELA, with the company intending to invest up to $100 million in the development of the Arnhem base.

ELA had planned to re-commence rocket launches with a South Korean company at the Arnhem site next year.

The NLC said ELA’s announcement contained incorrect timelines and wrongly blamed the NLC for the delays. It also reiterated its commitment to fostering agreements between the Arnhem Space Centre and Traditional Owners, underscoring its role in facilitating Land Use Agreements for business activities on Aboriginal land in the NT.

NLC chairman Matthew Ryan said safeguarding sacred and cultural sites for all Australians was crucial, while ensuring that Aboriginal communities are engaged and reap the benefits from economic developments on their land.

“Our people will not be pushed into cutting corners for outside business timelines, nor can we jeopardise cultural obligations, our Country, or the hard-won Land Rights of our people,” he said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.

“We stand with our East Arnhem-based Council Members and all the clans of East Arnhem Land when we say that we are very disappointed with how ELA has handled this.

“Especially the false timeline they are sharing and how they have obviously been working behind-the-scenes with Queensland – where they don’t have the Aboriginal Land Rights Act to make sure Aboriginal Lands are respected and protected, and where they already have that appointed Coordinator to dangerously rush things through.”

As of September 2023, discussions aimed at expanding the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Land Trust’s ASC have faced challenges.

Complications from the exploration license application have included concerns regarding sacred site protections, violations of prior agreements, and communication delays, the NLC said.

Although the NLC acknowledges the economic and educational opportunities the ASC could offer Aboriginal communities, it said it remains dedicated to ensuring that all affected parties provide free, prior, and informed consent.

The council also highlighted the importance of a comprehensive review process and said applications would only move forward once all required information is received.

A CLP Government spokesperson said the NT Government is disappointed and indicated it would consider legal actions concerning the $5 million grant that represents a 5 per cent ownership stake in the company.

The previous Labor government said the $5 million investment in ELA in late 2021 would “support the rapid development of the Arnhem Space Centre”, which it said would “accelerate the Territory’s space industry and drive new investment”.

Instead, ELA started a local recruitment campaign in Adelaide in September 2022 for engineers and other specialist roles and expected to employ up to 40 people over the next three years in SA instead of having its headquarters in Darwin as originally planned.

Former chief minister Michael Gunner said in 2021 that the government had “backed this project from inception” and heralded the launch as “another major job boost for our economic rebound from the coronavirus crisis”.