Reconciliation and Social Justice Library

REBUTTING THE MYTHS - MYTH: ABORIGINAL PEOPLE ARE INVOLVED IN A LAND GRAB

In the Northern Territory , the majority of the land owned by Aboriginal people is economically marginal and consists of former Aboriginal reserves or desert and semi-desert country.

Former reserves account for most of the land held by Aboriginal people under New South Wales land rights legislation. The only land available for claim in New South Wales is unalienated Crown land which is not required for an "essential public purpose".

Under Queensland legislation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people obtain freehold title to existing reserves held previously under deeds of grant in trust. Claimable land will be set out in schedules to the legislation from time to time and claims to this land will be strictly limited and restricted.

In South Australia , the two major areas of land returned to Aboriginal ownership--the Pitjantjatjara lands and the Maralinga lands-- are in remote arid/ desert regions.

In Western Australia , Aboriginal people hold land, predominantly in more remote areas of the State, under 99 or 50 year leases.

Efforts by the previous Labor Government of Tasmania and by the Labor Government of Victoria to introduce land rights legislation were frustrated by those States' Upper Houses.

As is the case with any private land, Aboriginal landowners are generally entitled to refuse entry or to specify the conditions upon which entry will be permitted.

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recognised that the dispossession of Aboriginal people has continued to very recent times and made strong recommendations for addressing the land needs of Aboriginal people. These recommendations have been accepted by all mainland State and Territory Governments, both Labor and non-Labor.

Sources:

Relevant Commonwealth and State legislation.

Response by Governments to the Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Volume 3, March 1992.