The organisers of a massive multi-purpose farming project in north Queensland have been ignoring the indigenous population that holds native title to the land, locals say.

Traditional owners of the lands near the town of Croydon say they have not been consulted ahead of the estimated $2 billion Integrated Food and Energy Developments (IFED) scheme.

The IFED project would consume around 500,000 megalitres from the Gilbert River catchment per year, or about ten per cent of the catchment’s flows.

The local Ewamian Aboriginal Corporation (EAC) says its people have been promised negotiations over the large-scale project on their lands, but important aspects are being ignored.

“From Ewamian's perspective, mainly that the cultural heritage hasn't been addressed to date, and I realise it is going to come further on in the process, but Ewamian people passionately feel that the cultural heritage has to be addressed,” EAC coordinator Sharon Prior has told the ABC.

There are three major rivers that contribute to nearby catchments – the Gilbert, Etheridge and Einasleigh - all of which run for hundreds of kilometres through several other Indigenous community groups.

Incredible amounts of water will be needed for the IFED plan, which includes a sugar cane plantation, cattle farm, sugar mill, ethanol production plant and an abattoir.

But members of downstream communities say they have heard nothing from the organisers of the project that threatens to take a deep draw from their water supplies.

Dr Rosemary Hill is a senior research scientist with CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences and member of the 2009 Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce; she says indigenous communities can provide vital information for planning purposes.

“The research that CSIRO has been doing has shown that those rivers in the north have some very important cultural and spiritual values,” she told reporters.

“There's dreamings associated with the rivers, there are animals that live in the rivers that are totems and there are ceremonies that depend on the rivers.

“There are stories that depend on the rivers that are the foundation of customary law for those Indigenous societies.”

She says there is nobody more expert on maintaining river health than the communities that have lived from it.

“Research has shown that there can be a lot of connection between water extraction in one part of the river and maintenance of values in another part,” she said.

“On the Daly River people looked at how much you'd have to lower the water table in order that the pools, that the turtles and other fish species [that] survive in the dry season remain.

“And that's not very much, so you can have what seems to be a very moderate extraction that has a big impact on a river system because it has some very strong environmental limits.”

IFED chairman Keith De Lacy said in an interview earlier this week that he has consulted Indigenous communises, he also claims the vast amount of water needed for the project is sustainable.

“We've spoken to the traditional owners... I actually know the traditional owners and I've been speaking to them,” he said.

“We put a few proposals to them and let's hope that works out but ... we are determined to ensure that this project recognises the needs of Indigenous Australians.”

Authorities from the Australian Conservation Foundation say the plan is heading in the wrong direction, and that such projects should be realised through multiple small sites rather than with one agricultural behemoth.

“From our understanding of talking to CSIRO and other scientists, there are opportunities for some development in northern Australia of small-scale irrigation works and thinking about a mosaic across the landscape,” director of campaigns Paul Sinclair told the ABC.

“But critically we need to consider, right up front, the rights and obligations we have to Indigenous people to be involved from the start in the sort of development that will happen in northern Australia, and the Gilbert River is an example of where that has not occurred.

“So first and foremost Indigenous people need to be involved right from the start and that hasn't happened.”

IFED is reportedly yet to complete its environmental impact statement and engineering feasibility study for the project.