Portrait of Jeffrey Lee, senior custodian of the Koongarra uranium deposit.

In 1970 uranium was discovered at Koongarra by the Canadian mining company Noranda. In 1977 the conservative Fraser government excluded the Koongarra Project Area (KPA) from the newly established Kakadu National Park.

The KPA lies within the traditional lands of the Djok clan and is close to several World Heritage listed and highly significant rock art sites including Burrungkuy (Nourlangie). The Koongarra orebody lies within the catchment of Koongarra Creek, part of the South Alligator River catchment.

In 1995 the French company Areva acquired Koongarra from Noranda.

In 2007 Jeffrey Lee, the senior custodian of the Koongarra uranium deposit, publicly stated that he would never allow Koongarra to be mined:

“I could be a rich man. Billions of dollars … You can offer me anything but my land is cultural land.”

In 2013, thanks to Jeffrey Lee’s strong and sustained advocacy and decades of public opposition, Koongarra finally and formally became part of Kakadu National Park.