A First Nations-led group is taking on Clive Palmer's proposed Galilee Coal Project in a historic legal fight in Brisbane.
Led by social justice organisation Youth Verdict, its the first case of a coal mine being challenged on human rights grounds in Australia.
The opening arguments in the anticipated six-week hearing were put forward on Tuesday in Brisbane's Queensland Land Court, with Youth Verdict co-director Murrawah Johnson telling NITV News she hopes the case can set a new precedent for how cultural rights are considered in the approval of mining projects.
She said increasingly frequent and extreme weather events have prompted concern about what First Nations culture will look like in the context of climate change and how traditional knowledge is passed on in a landscape that is rapidly changing.
"Our arguments really are that climate change will be [exacerbated] by the arrival of new coal mines," she told NITV News.
"So the cultural rights of First Nations people are going to be limited by the effects of climate change."
"Too often, governments don't listen to us... so we have had to take this up against Clive Palmer in the hope that we can create a shift in the legal system and set a precedent."
The challengers have also raised concerns about the living standards of First Nations people in the mine's surroundings, with rising emissions posing a threat to their health.
Palmer's Waratah Coal is expecting to extract 40 million tonnes of coal annually over the next 25 years, the majority of which is expected to be exported.
Clive Palmer's proposed coal mine has been targeted by the challenge. Source: AAP
The challenge has also distinguished itself for raising the issue of falling demand for coal over the next 30 years, calling into question the sustainability of another major project in Queensland's Galilee Basin.
Other local environmental concerns mentioned in the opening statement centered on the potential destruction of the Bimblebox Nature Refuge caused by underground mining.
Sharyn Munro from Bimblebox Alliance, which is co-representing the challengers, labelled the idea "unthinkable", and said it called into question the entire nature refuge program, as well as its underpinning legal agreements.
"First Nations peoples and communities are forced to comply, completely undermining international principles of free, prior, and informed consent," she told NITV News.
"How are we as sovereign people expected to survive when the literal grounds and waters from which we grow are being ripped away from us?"
Across its duration, the court will travel to Cairns and the Torres Strait to hear first-hand accounts from First Nations people about how climate change is impacting their lives.
