Activist stakes claim to prawns
22.03.2001
THE $110 million-a-year north Queensland prawn industry had been ``put on notice'' Aboriginal people want to discuss sharing the resource, Carpentaria Land Council chairman Murrandoo Yanner said yesterday.
Mr Yanner said he supported the precedent set in the Torres Strait when a Cairns District Court jury acquitted two Islanders who took the catch of professional fishermen because they believed the men did not have the right to be fishing near their island.
He said he wanted the precedent extended to the north Queensland prawning industry.
A meeting of Torres Strait Islander leaders this week issued an ultimatum that all professional fishermen leave the Strait within a week, or have their catch taken.
The edict brought a quick response from Federal Fisheries Minister Wilson Tuckey, who said the Queensland Government needed to provide protection for fishermen in the Torres Strait to ensure they did not suffer violence.
Mr Yanner said yesterday that for decades prawn trawlers from Darwin and Cairns had plundered the resource in the gulf, yet local Aboriginal people did not gain a single benefit.
``They come in here and don't buy a jerry can of fuel or even a can of soft drink,'' he said.
``And not one job is provided for a Murri.
``The prawn fishery is north of Mornington Island and on that island there are some 1200 Aboriginal people, with 90 per cent of them unemployed or working for the dole.
``We don't want violence or stupidity. All we want to do is to talk with these people and government, and ensure that local people share in what is theirs.''
Mr Yanner said that three years ago a licensed mud crab fisherman came to Burketown and took 6000 crabs in a few weeks from the Albert River.
It took three years for the supply to recover, and the man returned last year, only to be turned away by the local people.
``Hundreds of people on the east coast tell me there are no fish left where there used be plenty, because of over-fishing by professionals with nets,'' Mr Yanner said.
``I would be a dog if I stood by and let this happen to our land and to my people.''
Queensland Seafood Industry Association chief executive officer Ted Loveday said people had worked hard and invested their lives in the fishing industry in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and were not about to share it with Aboriginal people.
``If they want involvement, there is nothing stopping them,'' Mr Loveday said.
``There is an easy way for Mr Yanner to get control. If his chequebook is big enough, he can buy the entire prawning fleet.
``I am sure if you looked you would find indigenous people employed within the industry. The only thing stopping them being employed is that it is their own choice.
``The industry will not cop any interference. It is an established industry working legally under the Federal Fisheries Act.''
