Mining giant accused of abandoning remote NT town to an uncertain future

With manicured lawns, flashy four-wheel drives and decked-out fishing boats in every other driveway, the town of Nhulunbuy has prospered from the mining industry for decades.

Now, the affluent community is bracing for tough times.

The town, perched atop the Northern Territory's Gove Peninsula, has been clinging on since Rio Tinto closed its alumina refinery in 2014, which saw the loss of more than 1,000 jobs.

But in 2029, the town's biggest employer will also cease production of bauxite at the mine that has generated billions in mining profits and thousands of jobs since the 1970s.

The land, south of Nhulunbuy, will then be handed back to Yolŋu traditional owners, the Gumatj and Rirratjiŋu clans.

The traditional owners have invested in local businesses and housing developments in preparation for the end of royalty payments from the mine.

But many local residents say there is little information available about the town's long-term economic future.

In March, supermarket giant Woolworths announced it would close the region's only grocery store next year, with no replacement named.

Blue Douglas has called Nhulunbuy home since he was two years old, but said he expects to leave soon.

"I don't know what my business looks like in two years' time," he said.

With a critical shortage of housing and the failure of a space centre once hailed as a regional breadwinner, Mr Douglas said he had been left with no choice but to sell off the handful of small businesses he and his family run.

"Like many businesses in this town, we've made the decision to pack up and leave," he said.

Rio Tinto accused of squeezing out small business

Rio Tinto is not only Nhulunbuy's biggest employer — the mining giant is also its local council, via a municipal provider called the Nhulunbuy Corporation.

Between 2020 and 2026, the Nhulunbuy Corporation doubled daily power charges for businesses, increased hourly usage rates for residents by 130 per cent, and hiked the three scaled usage tariffs for businesses by 65, 79 and 137 per cent.

The Nhulunbuy Corporation said a series of tariff hikes in 2023 and 2024 were due to Rio Tinto facing "significant cost pressures", with power prices matched to those set by the Northern Territory government.

Arnhem Allied Health managing director Sarah Hill said while a Rio Tinto small business subsidy between 2014 and 2016 and a cost-of-living offset in 2023 had encouraged businesses to stay, many packed up when the relief ended.

"The psychology clinic left, the vet left — [Rio Tinto] just allowed them to go and ignored the reasons why they were going," she said.

Ms Hill said in 2024 she had negotiated a waiver for her business's power bills with Nhulunbuy Corporation, but other costs, including a $100,000-a-year rental bill, had placed the entire business — including specialist services for remote communities — in jeopardy.

Arnhem Allied Health's GP clinic became no longer financially viable and closed this week.

Ms Hill said the federal and NT governments had been made aware of the health centre's situation via monthly meetings held over the past two years, but Rio Tinto failed to engage with them.

"Rio were not at the table — consistently not at the table — until I announced closure," she said.

Asked what Rio Tinto had contributed to Nhulunbuy's transition planning, Ms Hill was blunt.

"Nothing, other than increasing our rents, our utilities, our rates and our water,"

she said.

"They've prioritised profit … over people that depend on essential service providers."

Both Rio Tinto and Nhulunbuy Corporation declined requests for interview.

However, a Rio Tinto spokesperson said in a statement that by 2024 the cost of supplying power to Nhulunbuy "had grown too large to maintain".

"Moving to NT-regulated rates reflects what the NT government already recognises as fair and reasonable for households across the Territory," the spokesperson said.

"We remain committed to the long-term livability and resilience of Nhulunbuy and continue to invest in initiatives that support the community."

In December, a Rio Tinto representative told a town meeting the company had donated money to about a dozen community organisations and would reduce rates for "eligible clubs and not-for-profits".

Residents call for leadership

On a Monday last month, Esther Rika stood in front of a crowd of young golfers, offering tips on swings, grips and stances, at an impromptu training session at one of Australia's most remote golf clubs.

Ms Rika has lived in Nhulunbuy for about 30 years and began volunteering at the Gove Golf Club when her daughter took up the sport about 10 years ago.

She said it was one of many volunteer-run arts and sports clubs that had made Nhulunbuy a thriving community.

"We have a lot of young people, young families that come to Nhulunbuy and find a lot of success for their kids through sports, and that's a real special thing for this region," she said.

Nhulunbuy's population more than halved between the census dates on either side of its bauxite refinery closure in 2014.

The latest census, in 2021, had Nhulunbuy's population at 3,267.

According to Ms Rika, there has been very little information from those driving the current transition about how another exodus can be prevented.

"Whether it's the Indigenous communities or the local town residents, this is home," she said.

"We really need to have a direction and a future of what's happening post-Rio."

Twice a year, Nhulunbuy's big players — Rio Tinto, traditional owner groups, the Northern Land Council and the NT and federal governments — front the Nhulunbuy community to articulate that direction.

Gumatj Corporation chief executive Klaus Helms presented the most recent meeting with two projects being explored by the powerful traditional owner group: a biofuel refinery, and an ammonia production facility that would be built within the footprint of Rio Tinto's soon-to-be dormant mine.

Those possibilities came with a disclaimer: that a go-ahead would be "solely dependent" on negotiations for the hand-back of land between the Gumatj, the Rirratjingu, Rio Tinto and the Northern Land Council.

Mr Douglas said while he applauded Gumatj Corporation's efforts to land Nhulunbuy's next big fish, it would not be enough to keep him in town.

"They're all possibilities for the future, but there is nothing … that is a reason for small business and people to stay,"

he said.