A group of native titleholders are appealing the NT Supreme Court’s decision supporting the Territory government granting a controversial groundwater licence at Singleton Station to Fortune Agribusiness, arguing the licence was a risk to Aboriginal culture and land, the Central Land Council has said.

CLC general manager Josie Douglas told the ABC that last Wednesday they had lodged an appeal over a court decision that validated the granting of the licence that would allow Fortune Agribusiness to pump 40,000 megalitres of groundwater each year from the station, south of Tennant Creek, for horticulture production.

The ABC reported that Ms Douglas said the appeal would challenge the judge’s interpretation of the Water Act, the conditions of the licence, and the consideration that had been given given to native title holders cultural values.

“Native title holders won’t rest until the water license is determined to be invalid. They have deep concerns about the benefits being only to the developer and that the benefits to locals are overstated,” she was quote as saying.

“Native title holders are concerned about future generations of their children and grandchildren, and they’re very deeply concerned about … protecting cultural values and, indeed, protecting their rights.”

Mpwerempwer Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) commenced proceedings against the Territory Families and Urban Housing Minister Kate Worden, as the delegate of the then-environment minister Eva Lawler, and Fortune Agribusiness in January 2022. The Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC) commenced separate proceedings in the same month against Ms Lawler and the company, proceedings which were later ordered to be tried and determined together.

Among other things, Justice Peter Barr, who dismissed the legal challenge, said the Water Act allowed for a minister to make a decision on a water licence that departed from the recommendations of a water allocation plan for a region.

He said the lawyers for the group “had not established that the minister’s statutory power had been abused” and had “failed to establish that the minister’s decision lacks an evident and intelligible justification”.

At the time CLC chief executive Les Turner told the National Indigenous Times the court’s decision meant the NT government did not have to follow its own water allocation plans when making licensing decisions.

“Today, water allocation plans in the NT mean little and can be ignored,” he was quoted as saying.

Singleton Station is 294,900 ha and is located in the Western Davenport region of the Territory. The station was acquired in 2015 by Fortune Agribusiness Funds Management.

The horticulture project would see the proposed development of 3,500 ha of “intensive” irrigated horticulture on Singleton Station, which will be established through staged development over eight years. It would produce a “wide variety” of fruits and vegetables, including grapes, melons, mandarins, avocados and onions. The company has previously stated the produce would be sold nationally and internationally.

A study commissioned by the CLC found Fortune Agribusiness’s Singleton project was too dependent on a massive public subsidy of free water estimated to be valued at between $70 million and $300 million and carried high negative ecological, cultural and social costs that have not been appropriately considered.