Ngaanyatjarra Council's Perth CBD base has remote residents worried

Traditional owners in a far-flung corner of the West Australian desert are concerned the decisions made by a city-based land council could put their country at risk.
Pintupi man Winston Green is an anthropologist and plumber who has spent much of his life in the small community of Tjukurla, 350 kilometres west of Uluru and 1,800km north-east of Perth.
He said many of his family members, including senior Ngaanyatjarra woman Lizzie Marrkilyi Ellis and senior Pintupi man Simon Butler, were particularly concerned about proposed development in the north-western part of their country.
Viridian Energie has applied for a petroleum exploration permit over a 6,250-square-kilometre block of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, which cover thousands of kilometres of Australia's Western Desert.
But Mr Green said locals had raised concerns about the Ngaanyatjarra Council, which represents communities scattered across an area the size of Victoria, negotiating on their behalf.
He pointed to the recent situation in Jameson, 330km south, where BHP — Australia's richest mining company — suspended operations at the half-built West Musgrave nickel and copper mine.
Although the decision was driven by the plummeting price of nickel, Mr Green said it was a terrible blow to the community, where incomes were low and job prospects were few.
"From before and after [the mining agreement was in place], if you were to take a photograph and ask yourself 'what has improved?' I'd say not a lot has improved."
In 2023, the Ngaanyatjarra Council shifted its head office from Alice Springs to a high-rise building in St Georges Terrace in Perth's CBD.
Mr Green said it left them increasingly disconnected from the communities they represented.
He questioned whether funds from mining agreements would reach remote Ngaanyatjarra communities, or if they would be sunk into administration costs in the city.
He also questioned why the independent "non-member director" positions on the council's board were vacant.
The Ngaanyatjarra Council said while these directors were an option, they were not required.
Leigh Nelson, general manager of communities at the Ngaanyatjarra Council, said he understood why community members had questions about the head office's CBD location.
But he defended the move, saying it better positioned council staff to speak with government agencies, like the federal government's National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA), which also had offices nearby.
He said it was "not unusual" for an Aboriginal corporation to have a CBD base.
While he said he could not disclose how much it paid in rent, he said it was "extremely reasonable".
He also pointed out it had regional offices and staff throughout the Ngaanyatjarra Lands and Alice Springs.
But Mr Green and Dr Ellis believed the council should be more accessible, with residents in smaller communities like Tjukurla feeling increasingly forgotten.
"The Ngaanyatjarra Council, they haven't really helped Tjukurla community and the people advance that much," Dr Ellis said.
"They put all their focus on the other communities."
With native title negotiations conducted as a "cultural bloc", the Tjukurla residents fear their interests are being dominated by those of larger communities.
Mr Green said many people in Tjukurla were far more connected to the north-eastern part of the region than those in Warburton.
He said it was important council appreciated those differences when it dealt with resource companies.
Viridian Energie has lodged an application with the WA government to explore for "gold hydrogen" and helium north-west of Tjukurla.
Director John Heugh said before moving forward, it would need to negotiate a cultural heritage agreement with the Ngaanyatjarra Council.
He said if traditional owners did not want development on their country, the company would not proceed.
But he said it was bound to honour the land council's decision, not that of individual communities.
"[The Ngaanyatjarra Council] are the legitimate representatives of all the people who live there," he said.
Mr Green also questioned whether the community had sufficiently benefited from the West Musgrave nickel and copper mine, which has been suspended until at least 2027.
Ralph Addis, the Ngaanyatjarra Council's executive director of strategy, said the mining agreement had been designed to deliver most benefits once production began and royalty money started flowing.
"No-one foresaw that the nickel market was going to go south as dramatically as it did," he said.
Mr Addis said BHP had contributed towards playgroup facility upgrades and purchasing white goods, through about $3.2 million of social investment funding over the past three years.
He said a "significant" pre-production payment went to traditional owners via the council.
"If we had your standard-variety mining agreement in this circumstance, we'd be in an even worse spot than we are," Mr Addis said.
"So I actually think that [traditional owners], with the council support, negotiated a very solid and very modern mining agreement for the BHP mine.
A BHP spokesperson said it was aware the suspension had been challenging for many Ngaanyatjarra people.
It is understood BHP is working with the council to review the funding distribution structure.
Mr Green and Dr Ellis said they were investigating whether they could push for another governance structure, to give them more control over their land and community.
"Not from the council side."
It is understood any change would require sign-off from the Ngaanyatjarra Council and the prescribed body corporate Yarnangu Ngaanyatjarraku Parna.
Mr Addis said negotiations around the Viridian Energie permit were only in the early stages.
"But if … there's a gap in understanding of the current state, then that's absolutely something we'd take on board."

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