A Geography of Water Matters in the Ord Catchment, Northern Australia Jessica Emma McLean A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Geosciences University of Sydney 2010 Abstract This thesis examines water matters in the Ord catchment. It shows how social, environmental, cultural and economic dynamics are manifest in water matters. In so doing, it critiques material and discursive practices that create environmental injustices, and highlights efforts underway to remedy those. The thesis makes two major contributions. First, to dissect water politics in the Ord through the prism of how water matters – from water supply and sanitation, to water allocations for cultural flows. Second, to demonstrate a theoretical means towards this end, by combining political ecology and environmental justice with a Masseyian spatial approach. Water, as a physical substance, makes tangible invisible power relations. To consider this, the thesis marries political ecology, with its focus on how power and politics help shape human-environment relationships, to environmental justice. A politics of difference informs the particular type of environmental justice drawn on here: it asks whether there is recognition of difference, plurality of participation, and equity in distribution of benefits, in environmental matters (Schlosberg, 2004). This nuanced theoretical terrain blends well with a Masseyian spatial approach that acknowledges places as made of ʻloose ends and missing linksʼ (Massey, 2005:12). The latter holds that places are never finished, are always being made, while the former analyses how power relations operate throughout processes. The thesis presents water matters as contested yet crucial to making sense of social- environmental relations; through contextualizing governance transformations and current water dilemmas, the shape of this contestation becomes clear. This involves spaces of interests coming together, and spaces where interests remain apart. These gaps are renegotiated through instruments such as the Ord Final Agreement. However, fraught water matters do persist, in part due to the complex place-based politics of water in the Ord that include Indigenous politics, environmental contestation, development processes, and a recent colonising history. 2 Acknowledgements First, I thank the Miriwoong and Gajerrong peoples of the Ord catchment who supported this research in many ways. From helping with interviews, to talking around plates of chicken or buffalo sausage, these people made this research process possible. Also, thanks to the Kimberley Land Council collaborated through a research agreement that grounded the fieldwork. The Ord catchment map was compiled by Tony Veale from the Department of Indigenous Affairs; I thank him for his readiness to share his map-making proficiency. Government institutions in Kununurra were open and obliging. Thanks to: the Ord Catchment Reference Group, Department of Indigenous Affairs, Department of Water, Department of Environment and Conservation, Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley, Indigenous Coordination Centre, Water Corporation, Department of Agriculture, Office of Native Title and Community Water Grants Officers. During the main fieldwork in 2006, my parents, Anne and David, visited Kununurra and took me on a holiday to Kakadu National Park and Darwin. Their work as proxy Field Officers in Kununurra was instrumental in gathering images and data for analysis, as was their love and support in undertaking this project. Similarly, my siblings and their partners, Rachel, Sharon, Daniel, Guida, Elizabeth, Gabriel, Caroline, Joshua, Katie, Naomi, Hannah, Joachim and Tobias, who all aided the progress of this work in multiple ways – from baby-care of Lorenzo to innumerable long distance phone calls. My cousins in Darwin often gave me a bed to sleep on and memorable Darwin experiences. Without my familyʼs assistance, I would not have thought of starting all this. Thanks to my friends, both geographically inclined and otherwise, who encouraged me in various ways throughout this research. Special thanks to Abbie for editing assistance early on and Jules and Kelly for their northern visits during fieldwork. Thanks to supervisor Bill Pritchard for his commitment to this project, from start to finish. His practical advice was very helpful in steering this research. I am especially grateful for his incisive editing, and ability to see the shape of the thesis when I was too close to it. Last, thanks to Lorenzo, for his love and endearing ways that helped each day I sat down to keep writing. Front page image: Parry floodplains, lower Ord catchment (photo: Guy Dutson) 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH AND CONTEXT OF STUDY 12 1.1 Water matters in the Ord and renegotiating space 12 Community driven change 16 Future challenges 19 1.2 Concepts and methods informing research 21 Conceptual framing 21 Methods 24 1.3 The thesis structure 31 1.4 Conclusion 33 CHAPTER TWO: THEORY 35 2.1 Introduction 35 2.2 A political ecology of water 37 Water matters 42 Situated analysis and Feminist Political Ecology 43 2. 3 Environmental justice 46 Australian environmental justice 47 Sustainable development and environmental justice 51 Water justice: a global movement 52 2.4 Masseyian space – postcolonial futures? 58 Postcolonial geography 60 Postcolonial geography in Australia 62 2.5 Conclusion 65 CHAPTER THREE: INDIGENOUS WATER MATTERS 3.1 Introduction 67 4 3.2 Environmental flows and incorporating Indigenous water values 68 3.3 Cultural flow 73 Current indigenous water rights recognition 77 3.4 National context of Indigenous water values recognition 83 The Fitzroy River, traditional owners and conservation groups 85 Murray Darling catchment management and the Murray Lower Darling River Indigenous Nations 89 3.5 International contexts of Indigenous water values recognition 97 Introduction 97 Joint management treaties in New Zealand and Canada 98 The human right to water and catchment management 102 3.6 Conclusion 106 CHAPTER FOUR: A HISTORY OF WATER AND PEOPLES IN THE ORD 108 4.1 Introduction 108 4.2 Intercultural spaces – transforming the Ord River 110 4.3 Early Contact Days between colonisers and Miriwoong Gajerrong peoples 113 4.4 Pastoral station times 120 4.5 Early Irrigation trials and error 131 4.6 Mining wealth on country: towards partnerships? 145 4.7 Tourism and Recreation 152 4.8 Future growth? 156 4.9 Conclusion 162 CHAPTER FIVE: INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES ON WATER IN THE ORD CATCHMENT 164 5.1 Introduction 164 5 5.2 Traditional Miriwoong Gajerrong values pertaining to water in the Ord catchment 166 5.3 Recognition of Indigenous values relating to the Ord 174 5.4 Ecosystem health and environmental flows: negotiating a transforming river 181 5.5 Conclusion 188 CHAPTER SIX: WATER MATTERS IN THE ORD, PART ONE 189 THE ORD FINAL AGREEMENT 189 6.1 Introduction 189 6.2 Impetus for the OFA: some antecedents 191 6.3 OFA - space for water joint management? 194 6.4 Two different readings of the OFA 198 The OFA as compensation to Miriwoong Gajerrong peoples: a less Eurocentric reading 201 Paving the way for Ord Stage 2: a more Eurocentric reading 203 6.5 Water matters 208 Partial acknowledgement of Indigenous rights to water in the Ord 208 Natural resource management and plurality of participation 211 6.6 Conclusion: strategic deployment of narratives from elsewhere 214 CHAPTER SEVEN: WATER MATTERS IN THE ORD, PART TWO 216 COMMUNITY WATER MANAGEMENT 216 7.1 Where water meets the body 216 7.2 Water concerns for Indigenous contexts within the Ord catchment 219 Water supply and sanitation in communities 220 Community Waterholes – the Molly Springs project 228 7.3 Causes of water dilemmas for Indigenous contexts in the Ord 231 6 7.4 The broader context: Environmental health development nationwide 236 7.5 Global water dilemmas 243 7.6 Conclusion 247 CHAPTER EIGHT: WATER MATTERS IN THE ORD - CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 249 8.1 Opening of the first water recycling project in the Ord catchment at a corporate Sandalwood farm, May 2006 249 8.2 Ranging values in the Ord: water values brought forth by the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee 252 8.3 Acknowledgement of Indigenous peoplesʼ water values 259 8.4 Environmental values in the Ord catchment 261 8.5 Environmental change in the Ord and its connection to broader scale environment and development processes 264 8.6 Native title, natural resource management and irrigation expansion 266 8.7 Terra nullius, water allocation and managing resources 268 8.8 Contextualising water supply and sanitation dilemmas 269 8.9 Suggestions and concluding comments 270 REFERENCES 273 APPENDICES 294 Appendix A: Lists of interviews for primary research 295 Appendix B: Dollar value of water uses in the Ord 296 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure One: Map of Ord Catchment 14 Figure Two: Birdwatching at Smoke Creek, near Argyle Diamond Mine. 29 Figure Three: Major intersections between environmental justice, political ecology and Masseyian spatial theory. 36 Figure Four: Cattle production for the whole Kimberley. 130 Figure Five: Area of selected irrigation crops in the ORIA, 1999/2000 (wet season) - 2000 (dry) and 2004/2005 (wet season)-2005 (dry). 141 Figure Six: Value of selected crops ORIA, 1999/2000 (wet season) – 2000 (dry season) and 2004/2005 (wet season) – 2005 (dry season). 142 Figure Seven: Limestone grasslands in southern Ord catchment 147 Figure Eight: Estimated Tourist Expenditure 1999-2005. 155 Figure Nine: Picture of signage at Ivanhoe