An Indigenous man has lost a legal challenge to stop Mungo Man and Mungo Lady's ancient remains being reburied in unmarked graves, with a court ruling adequate consideration was given to whether it defied Aboriginal tradition.
The plan for the 42,000-year-old remains was set in 2022 after the federal government approved a NSW Heritage and Willandra Lakes Region Aboriginal Advisory Group proposal to intern 108 ancestral remains in 26 unmarked graves.
Local Indigenous man Jason Kelly and a group of Aboriginal elders, who have for years fought against the reburial approach, launched Federal Court action in 2024 seeking judicial review of a government decision rejecting bolstered protections for the remains.
Mr Kelly, a senior Mutthi Mutthi man, has argued the remains should be kept in a way to ensure preservation, with simple monuments and the construction of a cultural centre.
His case claimed a failure to consider that "if the remains of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady or the other 106 ancestral remains were secretly reburied without memorials, they would be under threat of being treated in a manner inconsistent with the burial tradition".
The reburials, facilitated by the state government on behalf of three traditional owner groups, started earlier in March, according to Friday's judgment.
In dismissing the application, Justice Melissa Perry said the government "did consider whether reburying the ancestral remains in sites without memorials may be inconsistent with Aboriginal tradition".
"The minister expressly addressed whether the ancestral remains, including Mungo Man and Mungo Lady, were under threat of injury or desecration as a result of the proposal for secret reburials without memorials," she said.
The minister "did not err by considering only whether the ancestral remains were at risk of physical injury".
There was also consideration given that "the reburials project demonstrated significant, open and transparent engagement with the three traditional owner groups," according to the judgment.
Justice Perry ordered Mr Kelly to pay $10,000 in respondent court costs.
Mungo Lady's remains show evidence of one of the world's oldest known cremations and Mungo Man is the oldest human skeleton to be discovered on the continent.
From the 1960s and the 1980s, many remains were removed from the Willandra Lakes and Lake Mungo, and taken to the Australian National University for study.
After cross-generational efforts, Mungo Lady was returned to the Mungo National Park, in southwest NSW, for safekeeping in 1992 and Mungo Man was returned in 2017 with formal letters of apology to the traditional owners.
The park, part of the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage property, is jointly managed by NSW Parks and Wildlife Service and elders from three local Aboriginal tribes.
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