Federal Court Judge Natalie Charlesworth yesterday dismissed claims that the state government’s controversial $45 million North Adelaide Golf course project violated national environment and heritage laws.

She told a Victoria Square courtroom full of spectators that the national heritage values of the park lands did not include Indigenous heritage, but said “nothing in that finding should be seen as diminishing the Kaurna connection” to the land.

Public servant Edwin Kemp Attrill and Kaurna traditional owner Janette Milera commenced the high-profile proceedings against the state government in June.

Kemp Attrill and Milera’s lawyers argued the North Adelaide Golf Course Plans should have been referred to the Federal Environment Minister to test the project against the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

The state government, represented by lawyer Alison Doecke KC, argued the project did not meet the threshold for referral to the Federal Environment Minister.

Charlesworth ruled in favour of the government, her judgment focusing on how the Adelaide Park Lands as a whole would be impacted by the works at the golf course.

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The Adelaide Park Lands and City Layout was nationally heritage listed in 2008.

In the 137-page judgment published today, Charlesworth said the heritage listing did “not in terms include any reference to Kaurna people nor to any area situated within the Listed Place that is of significance to them”.

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Kemp Attrill and Milera’s lawyer argued that Aboriginal heritage was part of the “cultural assets” in the heritage values, but this was dismissed by Charlesworth.

“I have rejected many of the applicants’ arguments about how the values should be interpreted,” Judge Charlesworth told the packed courtroom on Thursday afternoon.

In the judgment, Charlesworth said “If I am wrong in concluding that the Listed Values do not include the pleaded Indigenous heritage values, I would in any event conclude that the applicants had not established that the Tree Removal activity has had, will have or is likely to have a significant impact on those values”.

Milera was recognised as a native title holder in the judgment, and Charlesworth accepted some of Milera’s evidence regarding the Aboriginal significance of possums in the North Adelaide Golf Course area.

“Milera was the only Kaurna person called in the applicants’ case in respect of the Kaurna people’s concerns,” the judgment said.

“I accept that her concerns are genuinely and deeply held. However, it is necessary to identify whether those subjectively held concerns have a reasonable foundation in the objective facts and circumstances.”

Outside the court on Thursday, Milera said she believed “the law definitely needs to change”.

“It needs to change to look at Kaurna culture, to look at Aboriginal culture, because we find as Aboriginal people, that we do not have enough protection on our country,” she said.

“The judgment hasn’t changed myself or my position as Kaurna person. It will always be Aboriginal land, and I will continue to fight for my Kaurna country.”

Milera and Kemp Attrill have not decided whether they will appeal the result at the time of publication.

Asked yesterday if current laws were fit for purpose to protect Kaurna heritage, Premier Peter Malinauskas said “the Aboriginal heritage laws in South Australia are very strong, and that’s important”.

“That won’t surprise anybody that knows my views and my politics on these types of matters; this is something we should treat seriously, and we do”, Malinauskas said.

“There are very strict laws in place in South Australia around Aboriginal heritage. I think those laws are important. They should be complied with by all actors, none more so than the state, and we’ve done that every step of the way. And today’s judgment is only yet another demonstration of that.

“A lot of care and dedicated effort has been put into making sure that the state government doesn’t just comply, but acts as a good custodian of Aboriginal heritage around the state, including in and around this precinct.”

Greens senator Barbara Pocock, who attended the judgment, said it “reveals the gaps, limitations, and inadequacies of the [federal] Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and the processes around it”.

“We need to have an act which actually protects Kaurna heritage and Aboriginal heritage across our country, and which protects our threatened species and this shows the limitations of that act,” Pocock told InDaily.