Why do we need the CAB Burra Trust?

The CAB Burra Trust has been set up for one reason only – to ensure our children have a future.

This can be achieved through education, preserving our culture, instilling pride in belonging, promoting understanding and encouraging young people to find their way in the modern world without losing their connection to our traditions.

All this costs money and that’s why our people voted by a majority of 294 to 1 to support the Indigenous Land Use Agreement and our partnership with the Carmichael mine.

The agreement ensures we remain custodians of the land we have always walked upon, and the benefits we receive mean future generations of Wangan Jagalingou will be free to create their own story.

Growing Our Indigenous Businesses Through Mining

We recognise that mining presents significant opportunities for our Indigenous businesses and people to grow and thrive, and that by working with resources companies, we can ensure our traditions and customs, and Cultural Heritage are respected and integrated into their operations and ways of working.

Australia’s largest directory of Indigenous businesses, Supply Nation, highlights that mining companies account for almost half (48 per cent) of the spend with registered Indigenous businesses.

“Procurement by Supply Nation members has been dominated by the construction and mining sectors and focussed narrowly,” their Driving Growth in Indigenous Business report states.

“Supply Nation’s success over the last 10 years shows that enabling much greater Indigenous procurement is achievable and drives rapid growth for Indigenous businesses,” the report continues.

“Overall, we estimate Supply Nation has already supported $3.4 billion in revenue from procurement spend over the last four years for Indigenous businesses.”

At Bravus Mining and Resources’ Carmichael mine, the Clermont and Belyando Burra contemporaries helped develop an Indigenous Participation Plan to deliver better education, training, employment, and business participation for First Nations people for years to come through things like:

  • A minimum $250 million Indigenous Business Development and Contracting Commitment
  • A minimum commitment of $7.5 million in Indigenous Educational Bursaries / Pre-Employment Programs
  • A minimum 10% Indigenous Trainee Target
  • A minimum 7.5% Indigenous Employment Target
  • A commitment to best practice Indigenous Cultural Heritage and Environmental Management.

This significant ongoing investment is having a positive impact on our people and our communities.

Our support of Bravus Mining and Resources to responsibly mine coal on our Country has created job opportunities for young First Nations people as well as seen our traditional practices integrated with modern land management methods to better care for our ancestral lands.

One example of this is Woongal Environmental Services, a Wangan and Jagalingou-certified and Supply Nation registered business that is based in Rockhampton and Yeppoon.

Woongal first partnered with Bravus Mining and Resources in 2018 and their Indigenous rangers have helped achieve the extensive land and water-based environmental management and research activities required under the Carmichael mine’s Queensland and Australian government approvals.

The scope of Woongal’s work during the contract period included delivering or supporting:

  • The monitoring and reporting on environmental matters across the significant offset areas and conservation zones within Bravus Mining and Resources’ Mining Lease.
  • Management of invasive weed and animal species to protect native ecosystems.
  • Fauna spotting and catching to ensure the safety of local wildlife (including our totem animals) during land disturbances.
  • The world-class research into local populations of the endangered Black-throated Finch (one of our totem animals).
  • Fencing, road, and track maintenance, and
  • Environmental monitoring and surveying services in the culturally significant Doongmabulla Springs area to support academic research into local groundwater-dependent ecosystems.