Court rules on WA sacred site

A decision to strip a Port Hedland Aboriginal sacred site of protection has been quashed by the West Australian Supreme Court.

The Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee made a finding in December 2013 that an area around Port Hedland port should not be considered an Aboriginal sacred site because it was not used for religious purposes.

Marapikurrinya siblings Kerry and Diana Robinson challenged the finding last year, and on Wednesday, Justice John Chaney agreed.

"The ACMC asked itself the wrong questions and identified the wrong issues, thereby falling into jurisdictional error," he said.

Justice Chaney said the ACMC decision should be set aside and the matter should go back to the committee to reconsider its recommendations to the minister.

Mr Robinson said after the judgment was handed down that the Marapikurrinya clan had been waiting a long time for some good news.

"We have been fighting so hard for our lore and land not to be destroyed," he said.

"From the beginning when the Mt Newman mining company came to Port Hedland in the 1960's we have had too many problems from the government side of it.

Mr Robinson said his clan's heritage was "getting destroyed every time a mining company comes here hammering and dredging".

"It is about time we won something."