In the face of this steady progress towards mining, relations between the NLC and the ASSPA were a mix of cooperation and reserve. Among field staff with local experience, there was a shared concern that the Jawoyn were not equipped with the internal community resources and information, nor were they being allowed the time and space, to adequately come to grips with proposals such as Coronation Hill. These officers tried to provide the personal and organisational support they felt was lacking, and were inclined to suspicion of the BHP team’s liaison efforts. Formally the two organisations exchanged file materials for mutual information, and the ASSPA director supported the availability of the NLC’s Katherine office legal advisor to assist the Jawoyn. Senior NLC people acknowledged that carriage of the issue lay with the ASSPA, but felt, initially, that their reservations with respect to the capacity of the ASSPA to protect Aboriginal interests were being confirmed.

By the end of 1986 a number of inconsistent Jawoyn statements, and the further development works approved at the October meeting, had created new doubts as to the Jawoyn position with respect to mining. Whatever the final position on that issue, the NLC still considered a land claim as essential to protect Jawoyn interests in the area. While such a claim could not be lodged while Gimbat remained a pastoral lease, the NLC hoped in the meantime, by way of Jawoyn requests for assistance, to manouevre itself into the role of protective intermediary. This it achieved in January and February 1987, with formal instructions from the Jawoyn Association to act as the Jawoyn legal representative,^[11] and authorisation from the Association to attend all meetings between the Jawoyn and BHP.

By these steps, the NLC sought to overcome any objection to its right to be present and to advise the Jawoyn in all their dealings over Coronation Hill. Shortly thereafter, however, in March and April, NLC officers recorded statements on three occasions, largely from the same senior Jawoyn individuals, in favour, against, and in favour, of mining. The NLC, having finally achieved formal standing as the Jawoyn legal representative, could not effectively advocate its client’s position, because it was unable to determine with certainty what that position was. Matters were no better clarified at a Jawoyn Association meeting in May where an NLC officer recorded that those present appeared undecided about the issue.

The NLC encountered further difficulties in having its role acknowledged by the BHP project team. In the midst of the events just described, the senior legal officer wrote to the company advising that ‘the Jawoyn Association has instructed the Northern Land Council to act on its behalf on all matters relating to Coronation Hill’, and requesting that all communications to the Jawoyn Association should be sent to the offices of the NLC. That letter further offered ‘to discuss BHP’s current involvement at Coronation Hill in a preliminary manner at your convenience’.^[12] The NLC thereby attempted to consolidate its intermediary role by situating itself across the interface of contact between the Jawoyn and the company.

The BHP project team had from the outset been wary of the NLC and suspicious of its motives for intervening, perceiving its tactics as manipulative of the Jawoyn and inimical to successful development of the project. Its Aboriginal Affairs Advisor replied to the NLC that the team had to maintain direct dealings with the Jawoyn on a number of day-to-day matters, but that if the Jawoyn approved, it would deal with the NLC on formal matters.^[13] The BHP team thereby refused to defer to the NLC’s claim for the priority of its advisor-client relationship, and would allow only limited room for NLC involvement if this was authorised through the team’s own communication with the Jawoyn. Approaching the next round of development consultations in June 1987, the BHP team found no support among Jawoyn leaders for NLC involvement. The team proceeded to organise a meeting of about 30 Jawoyn people, including two senior custodians, and ASSPA officers, at which further works on the project were explained and substantially approved, in disregard of the NLC’s attempt to establish a formal role for itself.^[14]

Events up to mid-1987 thus left the NLC uncertain of its client’s views regarding the management of the upper South Alligator valley, lacking confidence in the ASSPA’s handling of the central issue of development works at Coronation Hill, and without proper recognition from the mining company as its counterpart in negotiations. At that point, the legal basis of the NLC’s participation in the affairs of the region was transformed by a raft of legislative amendments passed by the Federal Government.^[15] The ALRA was amended to give Land Councils the additional function of assisting Aborigines to protect sacred sites, whether or not on Aboriginal land. Other amendments declared Gimbat and Goodparla stations to be unalienated Crown land and therefore available for land claim, and empowered Aboriginal Land Councils in the Northern Territory to negotiate mining agreements over land under claim, extending their existing power to negotiate only over land already won. In anticipation of these developments, the Jawoyn Association instructed the NLC to lodge a land claim over the area and to invite the company to enter negotiations for an agreement over exploration and mining. The NLC lodged the land claim on 26 June, and wrote to the company on 2 July.^[16]