Thursday 27 April 2006
NT Country Hour - ABC
by Adrienne Francis

As time drags on in the decision over where precisely in the Northern Territory a national waste dump might be located, speculation has started to settle on the area between Elliot and Tennant Creek. Last week Senator Nigel Scullion stirred the pot by saying Northern Land Council (NLC) country was being considered, and ideally it wouldn't be in the soggy Top End, but located closer to Tennant Creek. However, NLC country is limited in that area, and as people scour the maps looking for the land the Senator might have meant, the name Muckaty keeps coming up. The Muckaty Aboriginal Land Trust is just north of Tennant Creek on the edge of the Barkly Tableland and on the edge of NLC lands.

Former Muckaty Station owner, Miriam Hagan, says while the area is drier than the proposed Top End site at Fischers Ridge, Katherine, she would still have grave concerns for the cattle country, if the rumour is true. "I'm quite stunned actually and I do think it would be a profanity to put that on the beloved place where my sisters and I grew up," she said. "There are, you know, deep underground aquifers, so I think a lot of homework would have to be done. Probably a way out in the Tanami Desert, or somewhere out there would be a better alternative. It is very surprising, quite stunning actually."