ABSTRACT
With expanding mining interests contributing to the growth of the Australian economy and considerable wealth for investors in the 1970s, the mining industry assumed heroic proportions in the perception of governments and the public, especially in the State of Western Australia, which remains to this day the epicentre of a mining boom. Any opposition, such as protests by Aboriginal people, were depicted as acts of treachery and criminality by industry bodies and the media. At that time, there were no statutory rights for Aboriginal people in Western Australia, none in relation to ownership of their traditional lands, and none in relation to their rights and interests in proposed exploration and mining operations.
