first published in June 2018

The Labor State Government had secret plans to create a city of 60,000 people at Port Stewart, along the east coast of Cape York Peninsula, east of the township of Coen, according to a deep, state ALP source.

It also planned to mine much of Cape York, in deference to demands by the Greens and conservation bodies to nominate the Peninsula for World Heritage.

In 2003 the World Bank chartered a specially equipped aircraft from the US to survey a vast area north from Townsville to the Torres Strait for all valuable natural resources which included minerals and timber.

Subsequent research by former Senator Len Harris’ Mareeba office revealed the survey had calculated the value of Far North Queensland mineral reserves to be in the vicinity of half a trillion US dollars.

Another plan according to Traditional Owners is to kick-start the National Party-era space station at former cattle properties Bromley and Shelburne Bay, on the east coast.

Indigenous inhabitants of Cape York however, have no knowledge of former Premier Anna Bligh’s secret city plan, believed to be devised in conjunction with Rothschild Bank as principal mortgagee of Queensland Incorporated.

The ALP source said the Cabinet in 2010 had proposed to turn Cape York Peninsula into “one big coal seam gas field.”

A new city built on the old Port Stewart site presumably would be the base for the intended mining fields to the west.

Such a proposition would revile the eco-terrorists of the Greens, World Wildlife Fund and the more sedate Australian Conservation Foundation. These pseudo-conservation bodies have been propping up the ALP for decades.

The Labor Party does not have much option with Rothschild Bank to which it owes at best estimates $60 billion, having it origins with the Goss government of 25 years ago.

Premiers Beattie and Bligh were quick to jump onto the bank bandwagon, reportedly from which they received millions of dollars in fees.  Indeed who would have thought the former, incompetent Labor Premier Bligh would have made it to the position of CEO for the nefarious Australian Bankers Association?

Depopulation of the Peninsula continues under the Labor Government as indigenous people are pushed from their traditional home lands with dodgy deals done by the Environment and Natural Resources Departments preventing traditional owner groups from utilising their vast cattle properties.

Only a few operational cattle properties remain after others have been either purchased or resumed by the State Government ostensibly to hand back to Traditional Owners.

Most white ownership has already gone.

The government cunningly selects an appropriate representative of an indigenous Prescribed Body Corporation to negotiate hand-over conditions, mostly not in favour of indigenous beneficiaries.

After the deal has been done, as in the case of the Olkola PBC, the group discovered the government had pulled a swifty by handing over five former viable, destocked cattle properties totalling 633,630 hectares or 1,565,066 acres of which only a fraction could be utilised for grazing cattle due to environmental overlays. The five properties once carried a total herd of 14,000 head.

A large portion of the holdings had been gazetted as national park, nature reserve or environmental research.

The Peninsula’s 15 PBC’s have less control over so-called Aboriginal freehold than they did with DOGIT or native title parcels.

Thus the government calls the shots when it comes to land use, in particular mining which can occur on all titles.

Shelburne Bay silica reserves

An indigenous group, the Wuthati clan, reputedly a front for Cape York Partnerships founder Noel Pearson, in the Federal Court two years ago , was handed native title over Shelburne Bay Pastoral Holding and its silica sand deposits, the largest and purest deposit in the world with an estimated value of more than $3 billion.

The inaccessible Shelburne Bay lies 150 klm south of the Tip of Cape York nestled in along the eastern coastline and is a favourite haunt for illegal dugong and turtle fishermen.

The silica sand dunes extend 100 klm south from the bay.

Twenty five years ago a prominent politician was accused of trafficking valuable parrots and other birdlife from a helipad near the towering dunes.

According to documents filed in the Federal Court in 2016 by another TO group which opposed the claim, the Wuthati totem is a stingray and there are no living persons with an attachment to the land.

Former owners of Shelburne Bay, Dal and Eileen Nixon maintained their research, beginning in the early 1960’s when the family took up the lease, found there were no living people with any connection to Shelburne Bay or were there any traceable descendants of the traditional people from the area.

As a Native Title researcher for Agforce the late Mrs Nixon proved there was only one possible legitimate living claimant to her 1 million acre grazing lease, which was resumed by the notorious Labor Government of Peter Beattie in 2003.

At the time she said the only living, legitimate claimant could have been her former long-time employee, Meun Lifu, now the senior TO of Yadaikana Tribal Council of Elders at Cowal Creek.

An examination of the board members for Cape York Partnerships, a CYLC affiliate, reveals the line-up resembles any bank board in Australia.

A number of CYP board members have bank connections including Westpac, National Bank of Australia, various merchant banks, a Secretary of the Department of Treasury, Macquarie Bank, a former private Secretary to the infamous PM Bob Hawke, P&O Cruiseships, Bank of Melbourne (owned by the Jewish fraternity), ANZ, an advisor to the nearby ALP sanctuary of Wattle Hill holding, mining contractors, a Wik representative, Aboriginal company Bama Services and not forgetting the lawyers.

This avaricious mob will have its corporate fingers well into any future development of the vast silica reserve.

If the Labor Government, pushed by the banks to repay principal and not just interest on its published, actual debt of at least $115 billion, has the political will to mine the scattered, known, substantial coal seam gas reserves on Cape York then it can do just that.

Some TO’s believe the reason for Cape York Land Council and Cape York Partnerships pursuing the disputed Number 1 Claim over all unclaimed or unallocated land on Cape York is the final part of the jigsaw to allow large-scale mining of the Peninsula.

The widely disputed Number 1 claim also will enable the State Government to nominate parts of the Peninsula for World Heritage in an effort to appease the by now, frothing-at-the-mouth spokesmen for conservation bodies.

Another Cairns ALP source said the recently announced $2.4 billion agricultural project for Cape York community Aurukun would not ever occur under the present State Government.

However it could be utilised in the future to feed the population of the proposed new City at Port Stewart.

Update:

Mining giant BHP at present is trawling among the multitude of indigenous groups, committees, PBC’s and NGO’s  servicing the Peninsula, offering vast riches for ‘worthwhile’ indigenous community projects.

A line-up of Cape York Partnerships board members can be found at:

https://capeyorkpartnership.org.au/agents-of-change/board-members/