While it is safe to say a lot of Australians know about a pipeline dispute in Dakota, a similar thing is happening much closer to home.

Australian traditional owners are hoping that some of the local interest the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in the US can be transferred to the Northern Gas Pipeline (NGP).

The proposed NGP project would see a 622km pipeline built to transport gas from Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory to Mt Isa in Queensland, and then on to international export.

The NGP was the subject of Northern Territory’s chief minister Michael Gunner’s recent meeting the Chinese government.

Mr Gunner has also met gas industry officials on his visit to Beijing this week, including figures from Jemena, the company lining up to construct and operate the NGP.

“Construction of the Northern Gas Pipeline, which is due to be completed in 2018, will create more than 900 jobs during construction, of which more than 60 per cent could be filled by Territorians,” Mr Gunner said.

Traditional owners are angry that the new NT Labor government has picked up the policy from its Country Liberal predecessors.

The Wakaya people - whose traditional land could soon be crossed by the pipeline - say authorities are ignoring their concerns about potential damage to the environment and sacred sites.

“We know if the pipeline goes ahead then all this fracking will come afterward and will damage our bush tucker, water and the land for our kids,” Josie Davey, a Wakaya woman, said in September.

“We believe we have been purposely excluded from the decision-making process because our group has previously raised concerns and objections to the pipeline route and deal during meetings.”

The Wakaya and Soudan Group traditional owners have written to federal minister for Indigenous affairs, Nigel Scullion, asking him to “withhold any ministerial approval of the Northern Gas Pipeline access route”.

“We are standing up and saying no to this pipeline not just for our own sake but on behalf of a lot of station owners and native title mob who don’t have any rights to stop the gas companies walking on and damaging their land,” said Max Priest, a Wakaya traditional owner.

A moratorium on fracking in the NT imposed by the Gunner government still stands, but will be reviewed in the future.

Reports say over 3,000 submissions in opposition to the pipeline have been sent to the NT Government.