Central Land Council

The Warumungu land claim resumes after a two-year delay caused by Northern Territory Government legal challenges. The Tennant Creek Town Council accepts the claimants' offer to withdraw more than ninety per cent of their claim over land close to town, but the Northern Territory Government rejects the offer and files an application in the Federal Court to have Land Commissioner Maurice disqualified from hearing the claim. By this date, the Northern Territory Government has been to the High, Federal and Northern Territory Supreme Courts on twenty-four separate occasions in relation to land claims. The courts have ruled for the Northern Territory Government in only one case.

Two eminent prehistorians estimate the Aboriginal population at the time of the First Fleet was between 750,000 and 1,300,000, and that more than 600,000 Aboriginal people died as a result of the British invasion.

The Federal Parliamentary Inquiry into Aboriginal Homelands urges state and federal government support for the growing outstation movement through the provision of basic facilities to more than 500 small, remote Aboriginal communities. Two months later the Northern Territory Government announces that Aboriginal communities with populations of less than fifty are not entitled to government assistance other than water supplies. About six per cent of the Northern Territory population is affected by this decision.

The CLC assists Ipolera outstation near Hermannsburg to become the first community to open a small tourist venture. The venture attracts government and commercial support.

The Northern Territory Government again loses its court action when the full bench of the Federal Court says that Aboriginal Land Commissioner Maurice may hear the Warumungu land claim. Hearing resumes but the claim is still subject to continuing legal actions by the Northern Territory Government.

The Northern Territory Trespass Act 1987 is passed, making it easier to forcibly remove Aboriginal people from stock routes without a judicial hearing.

Mingatjuta Development Pty Ltd, a joint venture of CentreCorp and Northern Territory tour operator Bill King, leases part of Watarrka (Kings Canyon) National Park to set up a wilderness lodge.

At a historic joint meeting at Lake Bennett, south of Darwin, the Central and Northern Land Councils agree to amendments to the Land Rights Act. The compromise package:

(a) preserves the traditional landowners rights to control access for mining and exploration but ties the two activities together so that an acceptance of exploration means an acceptance of mining;
(b) imposes a strict one-year negotiation limit for applications;
(c) introduces a provision for a government-appointed arbitrator to settle disputes over exploration and mining agreements; and
(d) sets a deadline on land claims so that no claim can be lodged after June 1997.

It will be a national disgrace if the two-hundredth year of our dispossession passes without the proper recognition of our indigenous rights as the traditional owners of Australia. The time is well overdue for our rights to be recognised by a national treaty, or embedded in the Australian constitution, and for the extension of existing rights to all parts of Australia. We cannot continue to witness the spectacle of our limited land rights being subjected to the pressures that can be brought to bear on the parliamentary process. 1988 will be a test of Australia's political leadership both in Australia and the international arena. CLC Director Pat Dodson, speaking at the Federation of Land Councils meeting in Alice Springs, June 1987

The CLC assists Areyonga Community to get funding and equipment for a project to capture feral horses to break in, breed and sell. The project provides employment and training for young Aboriginal people on the community.

In a national election the Australian Labor Party retains Government. Gerry Hand, a former member of the Labor Party Caucus Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, replaces Clyde Holding as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Initial agreement is reached between the lessee of Aileron Station and traditional owners regarding an excision of five square kilometres. It has been nearly twenty years since the Aileron group first tried to negotiate an excision. Unfortunately, they become stuck in a new catch-22 situation when the Northern Territory Lands Department refuses to issue title until water is found while the Northern Territory Power and Water Authority won't drill for water until the title is issued.

The Central, Northern and Tiwi Land Councils and Pitjantjatjara Council meet together and decide to boycott the Bicentennial celebrations. They believe that the anniversary of white settlement provides little for Aboriginal people to celebrate and decide to spend the year celebrating the survival of Aboriginal culture.

The full bench of the Federal Court finds that stock routes are not public roads and are therefore claimable under the Land Rights Act. This issue had led to Northern Territory Government legal actions in five land claims in the CLC area. The Northern Territory Government unsuccessfully applies for special leave to appeal to the High Court.