Central Land Council

The Hawke Government announces its revamped Preferred National Land Rights Model. The model is a 'set of principles' to which the Commonwealth believes all territory, state and Commonwealth legislation should conform. Four of the five 'principles' that the Government outlined in March 1983 have been dumped.

The new model: (a) requires no Aboriginal consent for mining on Aboriginal land, (b) prevents land claims over stock routes, stock reserves and Aboriginal-owned pastoral leases, and (c) restricts eligibility for excisions. The National Federation of Land Councils and the National Aboriginal Conference walk out of the next Land Rights Working Party meeting in protest.

The chairmen of the Northern Territory Land Councils - Stan Scrutton of the CLC, Galarrwuy Yunupingu of the Northern Land Council and Jimmy Tipungwuti of the Tiwi Land Council - tour every major Aboriginal community in the Territory to discuss the implications of the Preferred Model. Our Land is Our Life, the first land rights documentary made by a Northern Territory Aboriginal organisation, is produced during the tour to carry the message nationally.

The CLC opens an office in Tennant Creek. It is the Central Land Council's first office outside Alice Springs and an important step towards regionalisation and improved access for traditional landowners throughout Central Australia.

The Warumungu land claim hearing resumes under Justice Maurice. Fourteen separate portions of land are claimed by eleven local descent groups. Within a year, the Warumungu land claim will be the subject of three separate legal actions brought by the Northern Territory Government. Processing of land claims slows to a halt as legal actions in this and other land claims move through the courts.

The CLC's office in Stott Terrace, Alice Springs, is destroyed by fire. The Stott Terrace office housed the CLC's library and registry divisions and many valuable files are destroyed.

Chief Minister Ian Tuxworth announces that the Northern Territory will not introduce any excisions legislation and instead produces a set of 'administrative guidelines' which will form the basis for handling all excision applications. Under the guidelines even fewer families will be eligible than under the discarded Community Living Areas Bill. The CLC objects vigorously, but Aboriginal Affairs Minister Clyde Holding suggests that the CLC assess the guidelines after six months in operation. During the next year, CLC assists Aboriginal groups in negotiations for living areas and for excisions on fifty-nine stations while continuing to pursue stock-route land claims.

Traditional landowners purchase McLaren Creek pastoral station with funding from the Aboriginals Benefit Trust Account and legal support from CLC. The station is run down and virtually de-stocked but will give access to land and sacred sites to people dispossessed for generations. Plans are to restore it to a working cattle station and the traditional owners trap and sell the feral horses that have overrun the station to finance this development. The CLC lodges a land claim for the station immediately.

In 1985 we bought this McLaren Creek Station and you know when I first came to this place there was nothing. No cattle, nothing. Just place. That was three years ago. No horses for riding, nothing. Now we claim this country because it's our father's country. We've been working on stations all our life, working for someone else. Now we can work for ourselves. I've been working hard battling for something. Getting our land back means we can carry on and our children can carry on after us. That's the way we want it - to look after everything and do a good job. We're still doing it the olden-time way. Go around with the horses checking up the waterholes and fixing the bores. Now there's no white man looking after the bores, we've got to do it ourselves. We had a meeting and they picked me to be manager because I understand cattle. We've got to do all this fencing around the paddock now and clean it up and fix the bore and then go and look for cattle again. You know, you can't do all that in one day. Murphy Jappanangka, Station Manager, McLaren Creek

More than 1,000 Aboriginal people march on Parliament House in Canberra to protest against the Preferred National Land Rights Model. The CLC's Patrick Dodson attacks Mr Holding's policies and the Preferred Model at a National Press Club luncheon. At first Prime Minister Bob Hawke refuses to answer their calls for a meeting, but later agrees to meet a delegation although little progress is made.

Aboriginal Land Commissioner William Kearney recommends that the entire Mt Barkly land claim area be returned to the traditional owners.

The Northern Territory Government announces that $1.5 million will be cut from minor community funding, which will severely affect outstations and pastoral excision communities. CLC vows that the 'return to the land' will continue despite the cutbacks.

The CLC, Tangentyere Council and Central Australian Aboriginal Congress establish the Centrecorp Aboriginal Investment Corporation. Centrecorp is owned on behalf of all Aboriginal people in Central Australia to raise money for investment in resource development and tourism projects on Aboriginal land, to create longer term economic security for traditional landowners.

Kunmanara Breaden takes over as Acting Chairman of the CLC following the resignation of Stan Scrutton. Mr Breaden has been Deputy Chairman since December 1980. The six-month trial period ends for the excision guidelines, and not one Crown Term Lease has been signed.

The Central Land Council authorises development of a 'field division' with a separate manager and community-based information officers supported by town-based personnel to improve communication between CLC and the communities.

Title to the 1,325-square-kilometre Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is handed back to the traditional landowners by Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen. Aboriginal people from throughout Australia attend the ceremony but not the Northern Territory's Chief Minister Ian Tuxworth. He reiterates the Northern Territory Government's opposition to the handover.

My grandmother, father, mother, uncle and brothers all knew this place. But when the white man came he didn't know the Law or the sacred places. He didn't know what he was doing. His law is in a book. Aboriginal people don't need books to know the Law. The white man came with camels and he looked at Uluru, but he didn't see. He thought there was nothing but the Rock. He has no understanding of the Law of the country. He broke everything, broke the Aboriginal Law completely. Now they're beginning to learn. Now we are working together. Now we're level. Anangu [Aboriginal people] are happy for the whitefella to come here but they have to obey the Law. Kunmanara Tjamiwa, Uluru Board member

The Commonwealth drafts amendments to weaken the Land Rights Act and make it consistent with the Preferred National Land Rights Model. The Australian Mining Industry Council launches a national campaign alleging that Land Councils are a menace to national economic recovery and that the 'experiment' in the Northern Territory hasn't worked. CLC works to refute these arguments throughout 1986.

Former CLC Chairman Wenten Rubuntja is again elected as Chairman and Geoff Shaw is elected as Deputy Chairman. The CLC administration is reorganised and Patrick Dodson is appointed to the newly created position of CLC director.

The Northern Territory Government's Crown Lands Amendment Act (No. 2) 1985 comes into effect. The new law removes long-standing Aboriginal rights to reside on pastoral land.

These rights had been guaranteed since the pastoral industry began in the 1860s but the Commonwealth Government refuses to override the amendments. The CLC believes the changes are designed to prevent traditional landowners from strengthening their claims for excisions on pastoral land