A Queensland traditional owner forced into bankruptcy by Adani after failed legal actions says it means nothing to him.

August 16, 2019

A traditional owner forced into bankruptcy by Adani after numerous failed legal actions against them has vowed to continue to speak out against its Queensland coal mine. 

Wangan and Jagalingou man Adrian Burragubba was formally bankrupted in the Federal Court in Brisbane on Thursday. 

Mr Burragubba’s property will be held until $600,000 in legal costs are paid to the miner following unsuccessful legal attempts to stop the Galilee Basin project. 

Adani says the funds will be donated to charity if paid. 

“This bankruptcy means nothing to me. I have nothing for Adani to take. My family were removed from the land by governments and everything that was rightfully ours was taken from us,” Mr Burragubba says in a statement on Friday. 

He says he will hold the company to account over the current Indigenous Land Use Agreement. 

“Adani will be held to account for his claim that our people will be lifted out of poverty. And they will be held to account for their reprehensible behaviour,” he said. 

Adani maintains Mr Burragubba represents a minority of W&J people in opposing the mine, with traditional owners voting 294-to-one in favour of the land use agreement.

The miner says it is holding activists like Mr Burrabubba to account. 

It claims environmental groups appear to have abandoned Mr Burragubba after encouraging the legal action.

“Mr Burragubba refuses to accept the voice of his own people,” Adani says in a statement on Friday. 

“Activists who use the courts for law fare should be held to account, they are not above the law.

“It should be noted that Mr Burragubba has been urged on by environmental groups who now seemed to have abandoned him.”