Protecting Family Treasures

As the only member of his clan, Jeffrey Lee controls the fate of Koongarra, the site of untapped uranium deposits worth an estimated $5 billion. But Jeffrey Lee (pictured left next to a rock formation sacred to his clan) says only: "This is my country. Look, it's beautiful and I fear somebody will disturb it," I can go fishing and hunting. That's all that matters to me."

Lee, the shy 36-year-old sole-surviving member of the Djok clan and the senior custodian of the Koongarra uranium deposit, has finally decided never to allow the ecologically sensitive land (a rocky tract of land surrounded by Australia's Kakadu National park) to be mined. "There are sacred sites, there are burial sites and there are other special places out there which are my responsibility to look after,"Lee told the Sydney Morning Herald. "I'm not interested in white people offering me this or that … it doesn't mean a thing. I'm not interested in money. I've got a job; I can buy tucker; I can go fishing and hunting. That's all that matters to me."

Lee said he thought long and hard about speaking publicly for the first time about why he wants to see the land incorporated into the World Heritage-listed national park, where, he said, "it will be protected and safe forever". The Koongarra deposit is only three kilometres from Nourlangie Rock, one of the most visited attractions in Kakadu. "There's been a lot of pressure on me, and for a very long time I didn't want to talk or think about Koongarra," Lee said. "But now I want to talk about what I have decided to do because I fear for my country. I was taken all through here on the shoulder of my grandmother … I heard all the stories and learnt everything about this land, and I want to pass it all on to my kids."

"My father and grandfather were offered cars, houses and many other things, but nobody told them about uranium and what it can do. It's my belief that if you disturb that land bad things will happen … there will be a big flood, there will be an earthquake and people will have a big accident. Lee said there were places on his land where the rainbow serpent had entered the ground that were so sacred, "I can't even go to them or talk about them. I can't allow people to go around disturbing everything."

French energy giant Areva now wants to extract 14,000 tons of uranium from its long-disused 12.5 square kilometre mineral lease at Koongarra-- as world demand for uranium has grown, the price of the ore has soared exponentially.

However, the Howard Government has always maintained that no new mine would be approved in the territory without the approval of the traditional owners. And now that Lee has publicly declared that he will never allow the mine to go ahead will now put pressure on the Federal Government to formally incorporate the land into Kakadu National Park and make the deposit permanently inaccessible.

Lee, who works as a ranger in Kakadu, said incorporating Koongarra into the park would allow him to see that the land was protected. "Being part of the park will ensure that the traditional laws, customs, sites, bush tucker, trees, plants and water stay the same as when they were passed on to me by my father and great-grandfather," he said. As the sole surviving member of the Djok clan Mr Lee does not have any children to pass the land on to. "I'll have to see what I can do about that," he added.