Forrest family company lose appeal in WA Supreme Court for MinRes docs ahead of Aboriginal water serpent fight

WA’s Supreme Court has driven a final nail into the coffin of the Forrest family’s attempt to uncover details of a deal involving Mineral Resources and an Aboriginal Group — details that could kill a mythological water serpent claim. Forrest and Forrest Pty Ltd, a pastoral business owned by Andrew and Nicola Forrest, has again been denied access to documents covering royalties paid by MinRes to the Buurabalayji Thalanyji Aboriginal Corporation. This latest blow was delivered by the Court of Appeals at the WA Supreme Court and comes less than a month after the State Administrative Tribunal also blocked the legal bid. The Forrests wanted the documents as part of their long-running battle to build 10 weirs on the Ashburton River to irrigate parcels of parched land neighbouring the vital waterway in WA’s north. The billionaire family have claimed the weirs drawing more water to Minderoo Station would not materially obstruct the flow of the river. Opponents believe the effects will be “spiritual” in nature. “Our people believe that human interference with the natural order of the river will have harmful spiritual effects upon Thalanyji country and Thalanyji people,” a BTAC spokesperson reportedly said last year. The 680km Ashburton River runs through Mr Forrest’s treasured Minderoo Station and is a registered Aboriginal Heritage Site — the Thalanyji people believe it hosts the spirit of a water serpent called Warnamankura. The Forrests had hoped unearthing commercial agreements between MinRes and BTAC over the Onslow Iron project would potentially weaken the water serpent argument. SAT in April 2023 knocked back a bid by the Forrests to overturn a regulatory blockage of the Minderoo irrigation project based on Aboriginal Heritage Act grounds. But the Forrests won an appeal in the Supreme Court last year by successfully arguing there had been procedural errors during the SAT case. The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that access to the MinRes and BTAC documents before the SAT rehearing on November 3 could derail proceedings which have already had a “long and unfortunate history”. According to its most recent set of financials, BTAC made a net profit of $4.2m from $35.6m of revenue for the 2024 financial year. The Aboriginal corporation produced a net profit of $2m from $22.1m of revenue in the prior financial year. The Onslow Iron haul road built by MinRes is used to truck iron ore from its Ken’s Bore mine to the Port of Ashburton. The 150km private road crosses creeks connected to the Ashburton River. Onslow Iron generated first ore in May 2024.