Laetitia Lemke speaks to lawyer Martin Hyde about new information surrounding Muckaty Station which is nominated to house a nuclear waste dump.

LAETITIA LEMKE, PRESENTER: Debate's still raging over the nomination of Muckaty Station near Tennant Creek for a proposed nuclear-waste facility. The site was nominated by a branch of the Ngapa clan identified by the Northern Land Council as the traditional owners. But Lawyers fighting the nomination say three groups hold traditional ownership and say they've found documents to prove it. An application has now been made to the Federal Court for three new traditional owners to join the Muckaty nomination challenge. I spoke to lawyer Martin Hyde earlier.

LAETITIA LEMKE: Martin Hyde welcome to the program.

MARTIN HYDE, LAWYER: Pleasure.

LAETITIA LEMKE: Can you give us a bit of a background on this case, how is it you came to be involved?

MARTIN HYDE: We represent traditional owners from five different groups and all of whom are looking to challenge the nomination of a nominated site of Muckaty Station, which is the proposed site of a radioactive waste dump.

LAETITIA LEMKE: And you've found some new evidence that strengthens your case?

MARTIN HYDE: We have. We've unearthed some documents from the national archives which relate to the Muckaty land claim back in the 90s and what those documents show is that the Northern Land Councils position which is the one family group, the louder sub-group of the Ngapa clan are the exclusive traditional owners of the nominated site and what these national archive documents show is that that position is untenable.

LAETITIA LEMKE: What is that you discovered?

MARTIN HYDE: What you've got is transcripts of evidence from the Muckaty land claim where senior traditional owners are at the nominated site identifying that they are the traditional owners of the site and it's not the louder, the louder clan. You've also got the senior male member of the louder clan before the Aboriginal Land Commissioner, Justice Gray, and before the NLC representative pointing at the nominated site and saying that it belongs to another mob, it belongs to the Yapa Yapa people.

LAETITIA LEMKE: How important is this information?

MARTIN HYDE: Well we think it's very important information for the case. The other thing to come out of these national archives documents is that the Northern Land Council's own expert anthropology evidence put before Justice Gray when he was land commissioner of the Muckaty Land claim is that of the three Ngapa sub-groups on Muckaty Station all of them the land on Muckaty in common and that no single family exclusively owns any part of Ngapa land on Muckaty Station so what these documents show is firstly you've got clear evidence that the Yapa Yapa people have traditional ownership of the site and secondly you can't have Ngapa land on Muckaty Station which is just owned by one family group which is what the NLC's present position is.

LAETITIA LEMKE: Could the nomination of Muckaty Station as a site for the nuclear-waste dump now be cancelled?

MARTIN HYDE: We would like to think so but if another, if this nomination doesn't go ahead, in particular in light of these documents, we think that any further nomination has to be closely scrutinised to make sure that transparent legitimate efforts are made to identify the traditional owners of the land and that the traditional owners consent is obtained persuant to law.

LAETITIA LEMKE: What action are you hoping the Federal Government will take from this?

MARTIN HYDE: We'd like the Federal Government to take it on board, in particular in light of the legislation that's due to come before Parliament again next week in which the Muckaty nomination is the only nomination for the site of this particular waste dump.

LAETITIA LEMKE: Martin Hyde thank you for joining us.

MARTIN HYDE: Thank you for your time.