It was only 40 years ago last Sunday that Australians voted to change their Constitution so that Aborigines could be counted in the census. Before that, they were not officially human beings, but fauna – counted alongside kangaroos and koalas.

Today 70 per cent of the country’s 400,000 Aborigines live in poverty, but land rights legislation has gifted a handful the power to thwart multi-national companies. At Jabiluka, the 26 adult members of the Mirarr people, led by a shy woman in her mid-40s, are blocking development of one of the world’s biggest known deposits of uranium.

Yvonne Margarula says that the nearby Ranger uranium mine – which she maintains was approved by her late, sick father under duress in the 1970s – has made her people’s lives worse.

“Uranium mining has completely upturned our lives, bringing greater access to alcohol and many arguments between Aboriginal people, mostly about money,” she told a federal government inquiry.

“Uranium mining has also taken our country away from us and destroyed it – billabongs and creeks gone for ever. There are hills of poisonous rock and great holes in the ground with poisonous mud.”

Aboriginal cultures are based on nature, with an emphasis on the connection between human beings and the land. The spoils of industry are, therefore, not always a sufficient carrot. Last week Aborigines in Alice Springs rejected A$60 million (£24.8 billion) in public funds to upgrade housing on the caveat that the Government would assume leasehold of the land.

The Mirrar people benefit to the tune of A$10 million – or 15 per cent of total royalties – each year from Ranger, which has been in operation since 1981. When that revenue stream runs dry in the coming decade, the Mirrar say that they will turn to other opportunities, such as tourism in Kakadu National Park.

However, there are others involved. The Northern Land Council, which takes 20 per cent of royalties from mining projects, said yesterday that it wanted to bring Rio Tinto, the mining giant that wants to exploit the deposits, and the Mirrar to the negotiating table. Canberra, with an eye on the potential $6.2 billion boost to the economy, is said to be trying to cajole the landowners into backing down.

David George, an analyst at JPMorgan, is confident that the lure of the white man’s lucre will prevail. “It will go ahead. It doesn’t have to start production until 2011-12 to take over from Ranger when it’s exhausted.

“I am sure there are genuine considerations about the environment, but it is all about money at the end of the day.”

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