Central Land Council

The land is Always Alive: Chronology

1974

June

In line with the recommendations of Justice Woodward, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs organises the first meeting of the Central Land Council.

November

The Aboriginal Land Fund Commission Bill is introduced. Since 1973 the Whitlam Government has allocated $5 million per year for land purchases throughout Australia, but the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA) has been timid about spending the money. The Bill is passed in December and Martin Jampijinpa from Willowra, a property purchased by DAA in 1973, becomes a member of the Aboriginal Land Fund Commission

1975

February 28−29

The second Central Land Council meeting is held at Amoonguna, east of Alice Springs. The meeting considers how traditional landowners should be represented.

April 3-4

The Central Land Council meets at Amoonguna. The two-day meeting is attended by eighty delegates representing forty-seven communities. DAA staff summarise the recommendations of Woodward's Second Report and the Council resolves to hold regional meetings to choose delegates to represent all language groups.

August

Prime Minister Whitlam hands over the lease to Daguragu Station. This was 3,236 square kilometres of land purchased from Wave Hill Station by the Gurindji with money provided by the Aboriginal Land Fund. To symbolise the transfer Mr Whitlam pours a handful of soil into the hands of Vincent Lingiari, one of those who led the walkoff and held the community together through eight years of struggle.

Nyawa jangkakani katiya-ma ngaliwa-nguny ngumpit-ku mula-ngkura patati-yiri warik-kara ngu-lu yan-i nyampa-yala-ni kula nyampa-wu, kuya-wu-wala. Ngu-laa ngali jimari kar-u katiya ngumpin nyawa karwa-lu langa-nka-ma kula welfare-kari-wu kula welfare-kari-wu. Ngura ngu-ngala-ngkulu ka-nya, ngu-lu linkara ka-nya lurpu.

"These important white men have come here to our ceremonial ground and they are welcome because they have not come for any other reason - just for this handover. We will be mates - White and Black. You Gurindji must keep this land safe for yourselves. It does not belong to any different 'welfare' man. They took our country away from us; now they have brought it back ceremonially."

Vincent Lingiari, 16 August 1975

Justice R.C. Ward, a judge of the Northern Territory Supreme Court, is appointed Interim Aboriginal Land Commissioner. The first case he hears in Central Australia is the Suplejack land claim.

The claim is lodged by the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (CAALAS) on behalf of Warlpiri traditional landowners when a pastoralist tries to lease the area. In 1977 the traditional landowners withdrew their claim over most of Suplejack Station in a negotiated settlement during the Warlpiri and Kartangarurru-Kurintji land claim. The budget allocation to the Aboriginal Land Fund Commission is cut back to $2 million because of Commonwealth Government financial problems.

September 16-17

The Central Land Council meets in the basement of the Elkira Court Motel in Alice Springs. The Aboriginal delegates make it clear that their council must be independent of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, with its own office and staff. Charles Perkins is elected as Chairman, Wenten Rubuntja is elected Vice Chairman and Geoff Eames is seconded from Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (CAALAS) to be the first CLC lawyer. The Council considers the proposed Aboriginal Land Bill, directs the staff to begin preparation for land claims, including needs-based claims in Alice Springs, and investigates the possibility of the Aboriginal Land Fund Commission purchasing pastoral leases.

October

The Whitlam Government introduces the Aboriginal Land (Northern Territory) Bill 1975 into Parliament. The Bill proposes land rights in the Northern Territory based on the Woodward recommendations with land claimed on grounds of need as well as traditional affiliation and traditional landowners maintaining control over mining and development.

November

Justice Ward begins hearing the needs-based claim for Alice Springs town camps. The claim, which involves twelve sections of land, is organised by Wenten Rubuntja in two weeks of creekbed meetings with traditional landowners. Justice Ward states publicly that he is likely to recommend that all the land be granted, but the hearing is never finished. On 11 November 1975 the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, dismisses Gough Whitlam and his Government. Parliament is dissolved before it can finish considering the Aboriginal Land (Northern Territory) Bill. Caretaker Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser orders Justice Ward to stop hearing land claims, and calls an election for 13 December. In the Northern Territory the election campaign is bitterly fought. The Australian Mining Industry Council, pastoralists and the Northern Territory administration mount a massive media campaign against land rights. On the national scene the main issues are the economy and the dismissal and Whitlam is swept from office in a landslide victory for Malcolm Fraser and the Liberal-Country Party coalition.

1976

January

During the election campaign the Liberal-Country Party promised 'no change' on land rights policy under a Fraser Government, but now they propose major amendments including the virtual abolition of the land councils. The CLC joins with other Aboriginal organisations to fight back and counter the pressure of the anti-land rights lobby.

March

18

A thousand Aboriginal people march in Alice Springs for land rights and the Land Councils. The march knocks the wind out of Northern Territory administration claims that the Aboriginal people don't support land rights. People travel hundreds of miles from Daguragu in the north-west and Ernabella in South Australia in a stunning demonstration of Aboriginal support. It is a turning point that makes non-Aboriginal people realise that the land rights issue is here to stay. Following the march, an Aboriginal deputation led by Wenten Rubuntja campaigns for land rights across the country, culminating in a meeting with Prime Minister Fraser in Canberra. Mr Rubuntja carries a tjuringa (sacred object) to the meeting as a symbol of authority.

June

The Fraser Government introduces the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Bill into Parliament. The new Bill weakens the Land Councils, prevents claims over Aboriginal-owned pastoral leases and gives the Northern Territory Government responsibility for passing legislation for the protection of sacred sites and land claims based on need. The CLC strenuously objects to several sections of the Bill and negotiations continue through the rest of the year. Meanwhile, mining companies approach CLC seeking to work on areas which are likely to become Aboriginal land. The CLC gathers expert advice and details of proposals for traditional landowners to consider fully. A few days after the Bill is introduced Wenten Rubuntja is elected CLC Chairman at a council meeting at Amoonguna, east of Alice Springs. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ian Viner attends the meeting and promises the Commonwealth will overrule any Northern Territory law which doesn't truly protect sacred sites.

When my father was alive - he's been finish up along Amoonguna with all them old fellas - they use to say 'We got to get our land back sometime, because our land got Law.' Well that been come up news come about land rights and they said 'Yeah, we gotta get land rights now.' They come to a protest 'Land rights Now. Land rights Now.' That's all the way along. Centre people didn't have nothing then. Arrernte people just lived anywhere: town, tents, humpies and all mixed up only.

We been thinking that land rights is a good thing. Good thing for work and good thing for live. I like to talk about that one, because this government came over and asking questions of Aboriginal people about what we want. Well we got to ask them for land, if they going to give us land back, or you know, that we got to do. And how we going to work the country back. That's what we were thinking about inside.

If Europeans want to get land, they say how much? How many acres can you buy? We've got to go back and ask our Aboriginal Law. Grandmother's and Grandfather's country – that's the country we've got to get. We gotta find out from our culture country and you got to find out from your law. See? That's the Land Rights Act: your law and my law is standing as one. Two different, different laws standing as one.

Wenten Rubuntja, CLC Chairman

August

The Finke River Mission joins the land rights debate. Pastor Paul Albrecht and Professor Ted Strehlow campaign against land rights and the Land Councils, and the Mission holds a series of bush meetings telling Aboriginal people that the CLC wants to control Aboriginal land and have power over who profits from mining royalties.

They tell non-Aboriginal people that land rights and land councils are inconsistent with 'the Aboriginal reality' and launch a vicious and personal attack on CLC Chairman Wenten Rubuntja. The campaign is finally discredited at a large meeting of Aboriginal people convened by the Mission in November. Geoff Eames speaks to the meeting and dispels misunderstandings about the role of the CLC.

Pastor Albrecht loses support when he refuses to read the text of his own public statements to the gathering. Many Aboriginal people who had doubts about the CLC now become active members. In retrospect, the debate with Finke River Mission was of great importance for the survival of the CLC.

It taught the staff lessons about the need to maintain our grass roots contacts. It generated a debate on the legislation which certainly produced a real awareness of the terms of the legislation and provided a model for future processes of consultation. Geoff Eames, CLC Lawyer 1975−78 ] The Aboriginal Land Fund receives no funding in the Commonwealth budget.

December

The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 is passed. The Act has been amended but is still significantly weaker than Woodward's recommendation and the Whitlam Bill. Under the Act, land which had been designated as Aboriginal reserve is converted to Aboriginal land without having to be claimed (so-called Schedule I land).

In the CLC region these areas are Amoonguna, Finke River Mission (Hermannsburg), Haasts Bluff, Jay Creek, Hooker Creek (Lajamanu), Lake Mackay, Petermann, Santa Teresa, Warrabri (Alekarenge) and Yuendumu.

Land Rights to me is a very good thing, one of the good things that I have seen. They shouldn't muck about too much, but they should give that land straight back. To the people who hold on in the Northern Territory, they should give tribal land and sacred sites back straight away instead of holding on to it. A place like Suplejack, we are waiting for, it is 'frozen' in Aboriginal and European law. Suplejack is one of the most sacred sites to our Warlpiri people and it seems right for us to get it back; but we don't say, 'Get out!' to those staying there; we say, 'Don't touch it; leave it alone'.

The late Maurice Jupurrula Luther MBE, Lajamanu 1976

1977

January 26

The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 becomes law. John Toohey, a Western Australian QC, is appointed the first Aboriginal Land Commissioner in August.

The granting of land rights to Aboriginals recognises not only the justice of prior claims to ownership, it also recognises the validity of Aboriginal traditional law and cultural values. It will provide for the Aboriginal people a land base for future social advancement according to their own cultural values and their own aspirations and importantly, in their own time. What we require now is the goodwill of the people of Australia to make this legislation work. White Australians are not unaware of their own attachment to the soil. To Aboriginals it is more. It is their very life, the source not only of their spirit but of the place to which their spirit must return. They are indivisible with their land. It is life itself. It is the force that has enabled them to survive for 40,000 years. It has been the strength of their fight – now won – for their birthright.

Ian Viner, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the Fraser Government, at the proclamation of the Land Rights Act, 26 January 1977

February 3-4

The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ian Viner, joins over 300 Aboriginal delegates from communities throughout Central Australia at the first meeting of the Central Land Council since its incorporation under the Land Rights Act. Wenten Rubuntja is re-elected as Chairman and Don Ferguson is elected as Deputy Chairman. The meeting chooses a full council of nearly seventy members to represent all the Aboriginal communities in the CLC region.

May

The Commonwealth Government declares Uluru (Ayers Rock-Mt Olga) National Park, effectively transferring the ownership of the Park to the Director of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The area had been reserved as a national park since 1958 but until this time had remained crown land. The declaration prevents traditional owners from claiming their land under the Land Rights Act.

1978

April

Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ian Viner and the Country Liberal Party's Northern Territory Legislative Assembly leader, Paul Everingham, attend a CLC meeting in Alice Springs.

June

The Northern Territory Government introduces 'complementary legislation' which, among other things, denies Aboriginal people the use of cattle station bores and requires non-Aboriginal approval for protection of sacred sites. The legislation fails to address the land needs of Aboriginal town campers or those living on pastoral properties. The CLC organises negotiations between traditional landowners and Magellan Petroleum regarding oil and gas drilling at Mereenie Basin near Haasts Bluff, west of Alice Springs.

July

The Northern Territory is granted self-government. Paul Everingham, the leader of the Country Liberal Party, becomes the first Chief Minister and soon lifts the freeze on new leases of vacant crown land. The freeze was introduced by Prime Minister Whitlam in 1974 to allow breathing space for the Woodward Commission and the preparation of land claims. The move means that vacant crown land can be alienated by the Northern Territory Government and so become unavailable for claim under the Land Rights Act. The Chief Minister promises that he won't take any action that will interfere with land claims, and writes to the CLC: 'It is not the intention of the Northern Territory Government to attempt to avoid the intentions of the [Land Rights Act].'
This promise is repeatedly broken.

August

Toohey recommends that the entire Warlpiri land claim – 95,000 square kilometres of land – be returned to traditional owners. People begin moving back to their traditional country but some are unable to return due to lack of essential services such as water.

September

The Utopia land claim hearing is adjourned when Chief Minister Paul Everingham asks the High Court to prevent the claim going ahead. The Northern Territory Government argues that the claim should not be heard because the land is a pastoral lease and that the Aboriginal Land Fund Commission, which purchased the station, does not hold the land 'on behalf of Aboriginal people'. This is the first of many attempts by the Northern Territory Government to use the courts to block claims. While almost entirely unsuccessful, these legal challenges delay and frustrate the land claim process and traditional landowners. Mr Everingham we don't like what you are doing trying to stop our claim to make Utopia Aboriginal land. We hold the land in a stronger way than whitefellas. We hold it from our fathers and our grandfathers. We hold it as Kurtingurlu. We can't leave our country behind. If we go away bad things will happen. Somebody might get killed if we go somewhere else. We can't leave this country. We have to hold this land. It has our dreamings and sacred places. We've got sacred everything here. This has been our land, it has been our food, for a long long time, this country. You just can't hold us up again, like whitefellas did before. A letter signed by 100 traditional landowners from Utopia

The Tiwi Land Council is formed to represent the traditional landowners of Bathurst and Melville islands. These islands had been part of the Northern Land Council region but the Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Ian Viner, establishes a separate land council following representations from the Tiwi people for recognition of their distinct cultural and geographic identity.

November

The Northern Territory Government amends the Crown Lands Ordinance to allow sub-leases for Aboriginal living areas, but at the same time pushes through amendments to restrict Aboriginal rights on pastoral properties. These changes weaken Aboriginal rights to enter, camp, hunt and collect bush foods on pastoral properties that have been recognised in non-Aboriginal legislation since pastoral leases were first granted in 1863. The Warumungu land claim (to areas of vacant crown land near Tennant Creek), the Warlmanpa land claim (to vacant crown land west of Tennant Creek towards Wave Hill) and the Willowra land claim (to the Aboriginal-owned Willowra pastoral lease) are lodged with the Aboriginal Land Commissioner

1979

May

The Northern Territory Government increases the size of Territory town boundaries to include large areas of land under claim. The move is an attempt to frustrate the claims – under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act areas inside town boundaries can't be claimed. The town of Tennant Creek (population 3,100) suddenly covers 710 square kilometres – thirty times larger than the old boundaries. Darwin is made four times the size of Greater London and Katherine becomes the world's largest city! Later, the Alice Springs Town Council attempts to have that town's area expanded from sixty to 1,600 square kilometres. All these boundary changes are later declared invalid by the courts but they do succeed in delaying and frustrating claims through long and expensive legal actions.

June

The mining lobby and the Northern Territory Government campaign for amendments to the Land Rights Act to remove traditional landowners' control over access for exploration and mining. They claim that 'black tape' is tying up the land, but Aboriginal Affairs Minister Fred Chaney says the hold-up is caused by mining companies' unwillingness to negotiate: the companies have been encouraged by industry bodies and the Northern Territory Government to stall negotiations as a tactic in the push for amendments. Mr Chaney says the Act will not be changed and that miners should get back to work. Magellan Petroleum, which has taken a leading role in the campaign, resumes its talks with CLC over the Mereenie Oil and Gas Field.

August

The Governor-General, Sir Zelman Cowan, executes deeds of grant to Aboriginal land trusts for former Aboriginal reserve land at Amoonguna, Haasts Bluff, Hooker Creek (Lajamanu), Iwupataka, Lake Mackay, Petermann Reserve, Santa Teresa and Yuendumu. The Northern Territory Registrar-General refuses to register these deeds.

September

The Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act 1979 (NT) comes into effect, establishing the Aboriginal Sacred Sites Protection Authority (ASSPA). The CLC have continually argued that protection of sacred sites should be a Commonwealth responsibility and an earlier draft of the Bill was rejected by a Commonwealth parliamentary committee because it gave the Northern Territory minister control over the protection of sacred sites. In this version of the Act the ASSPA is controlled by Aboriginal people but its powers are limited and it does not ensure that new works are subject to a sacred sites clearance.

October

The Northern Territory Government notifies the Gurindji traditional landowners that it intends to take back Daguragu Station. In 1975 Prime Minister Whitlam told the Gurindji that the land would belong 'to you and your children forever', but the Northern Territory Government says it will be resumed in twenty-eight days because the traditional landowners have not kept to the pastoral lease conditions. The Gurindji prevent the resumption when they demonstrate that not only have lease conditions been met but the property is well managed. To secure the title to their land the Gurindji lodge a land claim over the property. The Warlmanpa land claim hearing begins in Alice Springs and takes evidence at Alekarenge and in the Tennant Creek area

November

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Fred Chaney appoints Barry Rowland QC, the former Chairman of the Western Australian Law Reform Commission, to review the practical implementation of the Land Rights Act. The review is established in response to political pressure from the Northern Territory Government for changes to the Act, but the Government makes no submission to Mr Rowland.

1980

February

The High Court rejects a Northern Territory Government legal challenge and rules that the Utopia pastoral lease is available for claim. The decision also clears the way for hearings to commence on other pastoral leases under claim. This is the first of a long string of defeats for the Northern Territory Government in the Federal and High Courts in relation to land claims. The CLC and traditional landowners reach an agreement with Magellan Petroleum over the Mereenie Oil and Gas Field. The Northern Territory Government establishes an inquiry into pastoral land tenure. A committee chaired by Alice Springs solicitor (now Chief Justice) Brian Martin and including Surveyor General Peter Wells and NLC manager Wes Lanhupuy, will report on a number of matters including 'the needs of Aboriginals'.

March

A thirty-ton boulder is taken from Kunjarra – the 'Devils Pebbles' – and placed in a park in Tennant Creek. Kunjarra is a sacred site of great significance to the Warumungu people and the desecration is blamed for the death of a senior custodian. The Warumungu campaign for fifteen months until the boulder is eventually returned. The CLC lodges a land claim on behalf of Wakaya-Alyawarr traditional landowners for the Wakaya Desert, 200 kilometres east of Tennant Creek.

April

Former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam meets with the CLC in Alice Springs, and visits Yuendumu, Willowra, Utopia and Tennant Creek. At Yuendumu he is shown a display of more than thirty painted shields.

May

The Willowra land claim hearing begins. The hearing had been scheduled for December 1979 but was adjourned because of the Northern Territory Government's challenge to the Utopia land claim. The outstation or homelands movement is gaining momentum and more and more Pintupi move to Kintore (near the Western Australian border) from Papunya (a former government ration depot). About 150 Pintupi are living at Kintore at this time, but the community's only resources are a hand-pump bore, thirteen iron humpies, one shed used as a store and a two-way radio. After negotiations between the Land Councils, the Commonwealth Government and the Northern Territory Government, the Northern Territory Registrar General agrees to register the titles to the areas of former Aboriginal reserves which became Aboriginal land under the Land Rights Act. The Act is amended to ensure that public roads are maintained.

June

Aboriginal Land Commissioner John Toohey recommends that the whole of the Willowra land claim be granted to the traditional owners.

October

The Martin Committee delivers its report on pastoral land tenure in the Northern Territory. The recommendations are very disappointing for dispossessed traditional landowners since they rely on the agreement of pastoralists to establish any living area.

In the past the white man shot our people and took the country. They didn't ask. They set up cattle stations and used the black people to build the station up and make them rich. Now Aboriginal rights have come. The Northern Territory Government wants to refuse the right to claim freehold title to land and mining rights. Land is important for Aboriginal people, to live there and have tribal customs and culture and sacred things. We are not trying to kick white people out. We can only buy stations when they are up for auction or sale. It is important for Aboriginal people to go back to their own country. If they have their own land they can stay away from trouble in towns. We give the cattlemen money for land. They never gave money to us. They just took it. We give them money and then we can try for Aboriginal title.

The late Jampijinpa Martin, CLC Delegate from Willowra

November

Mr Barry Rowland QC delivers his report on the practical operation of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act to the Commonwealth Government. After a year-long examination he recommends no major changes to the legislation.

October

The CLC meets in Alice Springs and elects Stanley Scrutton as Chairman. Kunmanara Breaden is elected Deputy Chairman, and outgoing Chairman Wenten Rubuntja remains on the CLC Executive and is employed as Special Adviser.

1981

January

Four years after the Land Rights Act, more than forty areas of land are under claim in the CLC area, and fourteen areas have been handed back. The CLC is working in co-operation with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Aboriginal Development Commission for excisions on eight stations: Mt Skinner, Lake Nash, Yambah, Hamilton Downs, Middleton Ponds, Maryvale, Napperby and Ambalindum.

Negotiations begin with Magellan Petroleum on development of the Palm Valley Gas Field with a pipeline to Alice Springs, and with North Flinders Mines on development of a gold mine in the area of the Granites, north-west of Yuendumu. The CLC reaches an agreement with Pancontinental to ensure that sacred sites are protected in a seismic work program on Aboriginal and pastoral land.

February

The Northern Territory Government's opposition to the basic principles of the Land Rights Act continues and Chief Minister Paul Everingham proposes a package of amendments to the Act. The package would stop claims over Aboriginal-owned stations, stock routes, stock reserves and national parks, and severely restrict the ability of Aboriginal people to apply for living areas on pastoral leases.

A series of meetings is held with the Land Councils, the Northern Territory Government and the Commonwealth to resolve differences, but Mr Everingham's proposed amendments are not accepted by the Commonwealth.

The Federal Minister has got a problem too. They are pushing him from one side and we're pushing him from the other side. How should we get around pastoralists? We should try and talk to them and they should talk to us. Then we know the problem then we can see clear. When we are talking to them, don't get hot and hot. Talk really smooth. If they talk that way and say 'you're not going to get your land', don't start making it hot straight away. Leave and come back and talk again. The late Jampijinpa Martin of Willowra

The Australian National Railways approaches CLC to ensure that a proposed railway line from Alice Springs to Darwin does not interfere with sacred sites. The CLC agrees to consult traditional landowners to identify an acceptable route as far as Elliot while the Aboriginal Sacred Sites Protection Authority is commissioned to clear the northern part of the corridor.

March

Traditional landowners, for the area around the Alice Springs Telegraph Station, meet to discuss the Northern Territory Government's plan for a recreation lake that would inundate and destroy important sacred sites, including Werlatye Atherre, a sacred site of great importance to women and part of the Two-Women Dreaming. The traditional landowners ask the CLC for help and send a letter to Chief Minister Paul Everingham stressing the importance of the sacred sites and the need to protect them. Mr Everingham announces that the Government will go ahead with the lake at the Telegraph Station anyway.

April

The Mary Ann Recreation Dam at Tennant Creek is officially opened by local MLA Ian Tuxworth. The dam reserve includes land that has been under claim since 1978 when the Warumungu land claim was first lodged. The dam was built without consulting the traditional landowners and will permanently submerge an important group of sacred sites.

May

The Northern Territory Government purports to offer a lease for a substantial part of the Lake Amadeus/Luritja land claim area to Messrs Ian Conway and Tim Lander. The Government's action attempts to alienate the land and prevent the claim. The area affected is the same one that the Luritja families wanted to lease in 1975. They were told then that the land was dry and unsuitable. The 'lease' is in breach of Everingham's commitment not to alienate land under claim and in 1988 the Federal High Court rules that the 'lease' was never valid. The Mt Barkly pastoral lease, 360 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs, is purchased by the traditional landowners using profits generated on the neighbouring Willowra pastoral lease. A land claim over Mt Barkly is lodged in June. Angarapa Aboriginal Land Trust receives title to Utopia, the first pastoral station successfully claimed by Aboriginal people.

August

A Northern Territory Government-Department of Aboriginal Affairs working party proposes amending the Land Rights Act to deal with the question of living areas and stock route claims. The amendments would prevent Aboriginal people who have been forced off stations from applying for living areas, give the Northern Territory Minister for Lands the final say on applications and not provide secure title. Mr Everingham says that this is the Northern Territory Government's last word, but the proposals are unacceptable to the CLC.

November

The Mereenie Oil and Gas Field agreement between CLC and Magellan Petroleum is signed. The agreement was actually finalised in February 1980 but the formal signing was delayed for almost two years because of a dispute between the Northern Territory Government and Magellan.

December

The Kaytej (Kaytetye), Warlpiri and Warlmanpa land claim hearing begins before Justice Toohey, taking evidence at Alekarenge and Alice Springs over the next two months. The hearing revives memories of the 1928 Coniston Massacre.

The killings occurred in and around the land under claim when Constable William Murray and 'Nugget' Morton led a revenge party through the area following the murder of dingo-trapper Fred Brooks.

Although they had nothing to do with the death of Brooks many of those killed were the mothers and fathers of traditional landowners who gave evidence at the land claim hearing.

Johnny Nelson Jupurrula's father was taking part in an important ceremony when the revenge party rode along Hanson Creek. And poor old my old fella, they been make big business.

And old fella go round and they didn't know the trouble there. They ran in. They grab them there, make [him] prisoner. they ran into Murray then. Grabem them. Two of them been shot in the Hanson Creek. [After] showing them all [the rockholes and water] along the country they know. They bin have a chain in the neck, all the way along. When they bin findem all the people then, last one all right. 'Right you two done it now, you two can get shot.' Bang!

Johnny Nelson Jupurrula giving evidence at the Warlmanpa land claim hearing.

1982

April

Justice Toohey retires after five years as Aboriginal Land Commissioner, and is replaced by Justice Sir William Kearney – the former Deputy Chief Justice of the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court

June

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ian Wilson and Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Everingham announce a package of amendments to the Land Rights Act. Mr Everingham promotes the Ten-Point Package with a national advertising campaign and a land council delegation travels south to defend land rights.

August 10-11

The Executives of the Central and Northern Land Councils hold their first joint meeting at Alekarenge. Both councils reaffirm their opposition to the proposed package of amendments.

September

Agreement is reached with the Magellan group of companies regarding development of the Palm Valley Gas Field. The agreement includes protection of sacred sites, jobs for Aboriginal people, 'up-front' payments and periodic payments based on the value of production. Another agreement is executed with the Northern Territory Government for lease of the pipeline corridor.

November

The Warumungu land claim hearing begins. Counsel for the Northern Territory Government announces that it has issued leases for several parts of the area under claim to the Northern Territory Land Development Corporation. By leasing the land to its own corporation the Northern Territory Government attempts to alienate the areas and prevent them being claimed. Justice Kearney adjourns the hearing until the issue is settled and the CLC challenges the leases in the High Court.

December

A Northern Territory Government contractor blasts and bulldozes a registered sacred site, Injalkaljanama, to clear the way for the re-alignment of Barrett Drive, providing better access to the Alice Springs Casino. The desecration occurs on Boxing Day during negotiations between Government and the site's custodians, and despite Government promises that work would not proceed until the issue was resolved.

1983

March

The ALP wins the federal election. Bob Hawke becomes Prime Minister. The new Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Clyde Holding, sets up a National Land Rights Working Party to develop national land rights legislation and in April he meets with the CLC Executive and reiterates the Government's five land rights principles: inalienable freehold title for Aboriginal land; full legal protection of sacred sites; Aboriginal control over mining on Aboriginal land; access to mining royalty equivalents; and compensation for lost land.

April

Custodians set up a protest camp at Alice Springs Telegraph Station to try and stop the Northern Territory Government's proposal for a recreation lake that would destroy important sacred sites, including Werlatye Atherre. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Clyde Holding proposes a joint Commonwealth-Northern Territory Government Tribunal but Chief Minister Paul Everingham will only agree to the tribunal on certain conditions.

May

Representatives of the CLC and other Central Australian organisations meet together to discuss the situation at Lake Nash and other communities trying to establish themselves on pastoral land. Charles Perkins, then head of the Aboriginal Development Corporation, tells the meeting that the Government 'has been mucking around for too long' and promises ADC financial support. The meeting sends a delegation to Lake Nash to consult the community.

June

Clyde Holding appoints former Land Commissioner Justice Toohey to undertake a major review of the Land Rights Act.

Toohey takes submissions from the Land Councils, the Commonwealth Government and Territory Government, mining and pastoral bodies, companies and individuals.

At the same time the Burke Government in Western Australia has set up its own Land Rights Inquiry under Paul Seaman QC and promise that, at the very least, they will hand back title to all Aboriginal reserves. A convoy of vehicles travels from Alice Springs to Lake Nash.

The delegation includes representatives from Central Australia's major Aboriginal organisations: Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, Tangentyere Council and the CLC. The Mt Barkly land claim hearing is held at Willowra and Mt Barkly before Justice William Kearney.

July

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Clyde Holding says that the Commonwealth Government will act to ensure living areas for Aboriginal people on cattle stations. In comments particularly directed at Lake Nash the Minister says 'This Government does not accept the view that the rights of cattle of some absentee landowners will ever transcend the rights of our indigenous people.'

Mr Holding writes to twenty-seven pastoralists urging them to take a sympathetic approach to negotiations over living areas and tells them that if they don't make progress in the next three months he will take unspecified action. The title to the 4,884 square-kilometre Willowra land claim area is handed back to traditional owners.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Clyde Holding visits the Alice Springs Telegraph Station protest camp established to stop the Northern Territory Government's proposed recreation lake. He tells the custodians that protection of sacred sites is a matter of Commonwealth concern and they will get the protection of Commonwealth law. His promise is eventually expressed in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act.

August

A bus takes thirty-one Alyawarr and Warumungu traditional landowners from Tennant Creek to the High Court in Canberra, to hear their case against the Northern Territory Government. At stake is the Northern Territory Government's attempt to stop the Warumungu land claim by leasing part of the land under claim to a Northern Territory Government corporation. The Central Land Council and traditional landowners sign an agreement with North Flinders Mines for the development of The Granites Gold Mine. Dr H.C. Coombs presents his final report on the restructuring of the CLC, Executive and organisation to the CLC meeting at Hamilton Downs. In line with the recommendations of the report the CLC elects a new regionally based Executive. At the same meeting Stanley Scrutton is re-elected as Chairman and Kunmanara Breaden is re-elected Deputy Chairman.

September

The Commonwealth and Northern Territory Governments establish a board of inquiry to consider the Alice Springs Telegraph Station lake proposal. A fire causes two deaths at the Telegraph Station protest camp and so the campers must move a way as required by Aboriginal law.

October

The Northern Territory Government introduces the Community Living Areas Bill to address the issue of excisions. The Bill largely reflects the amendment package of two years earlier. The Land Councils oppose the Bill because it makes no promise for Aboriginal people who were forced to leave their land and does not recognise traditional ownership as a basis for claim.

The CLC begins legal action in the High Court to prevent the Bill being enacted. The Northern Territory Government alienates Gosse Bluff (Tnorula) by leasing the area to a Northern Territory Government corporation. Tnorala is a sacred site of great significance for Arrernte people who are very concerned to ensure that the area is protected.

The lease alienates the area and prevents the land from being claimed. The Government keeps the lease a secret for several months and when the traditional landowners learn what has happened they ask the Federal Government to overrule the Northern Territory Government.

November

The Commonwealth Government announces that it will transfer the title for Uluru National Park to the traditional landowners who will then lease the area back to the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service. This is an historic decision and is a measure of the willingness of this Government, on behalf of the Australian people, to recognise the just and legitimate claims of people who have been dispossessed of their land but have never lost their spiritual attachment to the land.

Prime Minister Bob Hawke Although the transfer has been on the agenda since 1979, Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Everingham claims that his Government was not consulted: 'It came like a bolt out of the blue – I feel sick in the stomach.' Mr Everingham calls a snap election over the handback decision.

The Palm Valley gas field is officially opened to supply gas to the Alice Springs powerhouse, one hundred and sixty kilometres away.

December

Justice Toohey completes a review of the Land Rights Act.

His report, Seven Years On, is submitted to Parliament. The report recommends a strengthening of the Land Rights Act in some areas but the Land Councils are disappointed that Justice Toohey recommends that the Northern Territory Government be allowed to deal with living areas on pastoral land despite their continuing failure to meet Aboriginal needs.

Overall Justice Toohey concludes that the Act is working well. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Holding tells Parliament the Government is determined to see a national land rights package which is consistent with the ALP's five principles. The CLC pushes for national land rights legislation to be at least as strong as the Land Rights Act.

1984

February

Chief Minister Everingham assures Mr Holding that the Northern Territory Government will legislate for community living areas along the lines advocated in Justice Toohey's report. In a major victory for the CLC, the High Court rules that the Aboriginal Land Commissioner should proceed with the Warumungu land claim despite the Northern Territory Government's attempt to alienate the land under claim.

The decision is a victory not just for the Warumungu but also for traditional landowners in other cases where the Northern Territory Government had attempted to prevent land claims by alienating land after a claim was lodged.

Mr Charles Perkins becomes Secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Mr Perkins was Chairman of the CLC between September 1975 and June 1976.

A group of five Arrernte families who are traditional landowners for an area of pastoral land north of Alice Springs form the Mpweringe-Arnapipe Outstation Council to press their claims for living areas. The families, who are often referred to as 'the Yambah mob', have been pushing for living areas since 1975.

April

The CLC drafts a policy on excisions markedly different from the Community Living Areas Bill. The policy is designed to deal with the real needs of dispossessed groups and take account of the history which has forced people off their land.

It calls for Commonwealth rather than Northern Territory legislation, recognition of traditional affiliation as a factor and Aboriginal freehold title.

The CLC assists traditional landowners in Western Australia to form the Western Desert Land Council, which then makes submissions to the Western Australian Government's land rights inquiry.

May

In a widely reported speech, the Executive Director of Western Mining Corporation, Hugh Morgan, describes land rights as a return to paganism and anti-Christian, kicking off a barrage of anti-land rights media. In Western Australia, the mining and pastoral industries mount a scare campaign to influence the Burke Government.

The CLC calls on the Commonwealth Government to initiate a public awareness campaign about land rights to dispel the prejudices and misconceptions being exploited by the anti-land rights lobby, but the call is unheeded.

Traditional landowners for Uluru meet with representatives from the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory, the Tourist Commission, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the film industry to discuss filming in and around Uluru National Park. The meeting agrees to guidelines which permit most filming but prevent the desecration of sacred sites and intrusions into Aboriginal living areas.

The Arrernte traditional landowners of Yambah Station, north of Alice Springs, meet with John Gorey, the station lessee, to discuss living area excisions. The meeting reaches an in-principle agreement for five small living areas to be provided for the five major families. Unfortunately the death of Mr Gorey and external political pressure mean that the agreement is never honoured.

June

The Central and Northern Land Councils send a joint delegation to Canberra to meet with Prime Minister Bob Hawke, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Clyde Holding and Resources and Energy Minister Peter Walsh to discuss the mining industry's campaign against land rights. Senator Walsh has already stated publicly that he wants to see mining and exploration speeded up in the Northern Territory and Mr Holding won't commit the Government to maintaining Aboriginal control over mining and exploration on Aboriginal land.

The Commonwealth's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage (Interim Protection) Act 1984 is passed. The Act protects sites and objects of traditional significance, including human remains. The Act is intended to stay in effect for just two years, as a stop gap until comprehensive land rights and heritage protection legislation can take its place. It is designed to be a 'backstop' when state and territory law fails, and relies on the discretion of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. The CLC continues to press for a Commonwealth law giving Aboriginal people real control over sacred sites and cultural heritage.

The Community Living Areas Bill is introduced into the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, but its passage is tied to another piece of legislation which alienates stock routes and land under claim. The CLC responds by lodging twenty-two land claims to stock routes and stock reserves alongside leases where pastoralists have not co-operated with excisions negotiations.

The Cattlemen's Association urges its members to stop negotiations altogether and Mr Holding calls a meeting with representatives of CLC, NLC, DAA, the cattlemen and the Northern Territory Government.

July

The Yambah mob decide to move out of town and live on stock route and stock reserve areas near Yambah Station, north of Alice Springs. They hope that by camping on their traditional land they can increase the pressure for some suitable excisions.

This is my father's land. That is why I am stopping here. With white man's land, when the station owner dies, his son takes over. It's just the same. This is my father's land and I'm taking over. All we want is our place.

Mr Turner August

August

The Board of Inquiry into the proposed Alice Springs Telegraph Station recreation lake accepts the significance of the sacred sites which would be destroyed and highlights engineering problems of the proposal. The Northern Territory Government says it will look at alternatives, but Chief Minister Everingham says the Telegraph Station may be considered again.

At a meeting to resolve the crisis over the Community Living Areas Bill, Mr Holding proposes formation of a working party on the stock routes and reserves claims. He says the Federal Government will act if the Northern Territory Government doesn't pass excisions legislation in line with Justice Toohey's recommendations.

September

The Western Australian Government gives in to pressure from the mining industry and abandons recommendations of Commissioner Seaman's inquiry into land rights in Western Australia. While Prime Minister Bob Hawke is flying to Perth, Premier Brian Burke announces unilaterally that there will be no national land rights legislation. Burke's backdown splits the ALP in the run-up to the federal election, and although Labor wins the November election, Prime Minister Hawke endorses Premier Burke's retreat from the mining veto during the campaign.

October

In order to speed up the land claim process a second Aboriginal Land Commissioner, Justice Michael Maurice, is appointed. He and Justice Kearney will divide the workload to try and clear the backlog of claims waiting to be heard.

The CLC assists in the establishment of the Jurnkurakurr Outstation Resource Centre to serve traditional landowners in the Tennant Creek region. The Northern Territory Government informs the Land Councils that it is not prepared to proceed with the Community Living Areas Bill, after more than a year of negotiations on the issue.

The CLC assists in the establishment of the Jurnkurakurr Outstation Resource Centre to serve traditional landowners in the Tennant Creek region.

December

The Northern Territory Government informs the Land Councils that it is not prepared to proceed with the Community Living Areas Bill, after more than a year of negotiations on the issue.

Agreement is reached with Mereenie Joint Venturers regarding an easement for, and access roads to, the Mereenie-Alice Springs oil pipeline crossing more than 200 kilometres of Aboriginal land.

In addition, CLC commits substantial resources to investigating the possible commercial participation of traditional owners in a proposed pipeline to Yulara Village.

1985

February

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© 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.

March

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.

April

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.

May

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.

June

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.

July

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Clyde Holding hands back title for the 2,590-square-kilometre Mt Barkly land claim area to the traditional owners.

September

Land Rights News becomes a fully-fledged newspaper jointly published by the Central, Northern and Tiwi Land Councils. The newspaper replaces the old Central Australian Land Rights News and a similar NLC newsletter. A spokesman for cattlemen in central Australia, Mr Grant Heaslip, says on ABC TV that if legislation is passed requiring pastoralists to grant excisions, blood would be shed.

October

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.

October 26

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

November

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.

December

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

1986

March

The Commonwealth Government abandons its own national land rights legislation but not proposed amendments to weaken land rights in the Northern Territory. In the face of a public scare campaign by the mining industry and the backdown by the Western Australian Labor Party, the Government retreats from its own commitments feebly claiming that most states have made 'advances' towards land rights.

April

The CLC organises an intensive uranium education program, including a three-day tour of the Ranger Uranium Mine, to help traditional landowners make informed decisions about mining exploration in the Tanami Desert.Several companies then present exploration proposals to the traditional landowners.

Twenty years after the Gurindji walkoff sparked the modern struggle for land rights, the Gurindji are given inalienable freehold title to Daguragu under the Land Rights Act.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Clyde Holding, hands back the title of 60,000 square kilometres to the Karlantijpa Land Trusts at Yankirrikirlangu, 190 kilometres west of Tennant Creek. The area is made up of land returned under the Warlmanpa and Kaytej-Warlpiri land claims.

The Commonwealth Government still proposes amendments to the Land Rights Act even though the National Land Rights Model has now been dropped. The amendments would effectively remove the Aboriginal consent for mining on Aboriginal land and prevent land claims over stock routes and Aboriginal-owned pastoral leases. The CLC lobbies intensely to defend the Act.

It is the Law I have been telling of my grandfathers'. It is the Law. White man has no business with this kind of things. We tell straight, honest Law. it is our grandfathers', brothers', uncles'. It is their Law. The Law of the land – olden-time Law, Aboriginal Law. I am not a kid. I am an initiated man. We have got it strong inside the Law. Peter Kanari, Lake Amadeus land claim.

June

Traditional landowners and representatives of major Australian business firms exchange eight leases and access and equity agreements in relation to the Palm Valley to Darwin pipeline. The pipeline will travel through more than 700 kilometres of Aboriginal land in the CLC areas. The Aboriginal investment company Centrecorp acquires 1.4 per cent of Northern Territory Gas and the pipeline.

The Aboriginal Land Commissioner Michael Maurice recommends that most of the Ti-Tree land claim be granted, but rules that a 1.6-kilometre stock route across the former station is a public road which cannot be granted. The stock route area contains sacred sites and cuts the station in half. Excluding it from the grant would make the station unworkable and the traditional owners apply to the Federal Court for a review of the Commissioner's decision.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Interim Protection) Act 1984 is amended. In 1984 Aboriginal Affairs Minister Clyde Holding told Parliament the Act 'would be replaced by more comprehensive legislation dealing with Aboriginal land rights and heritage protection'. The Act was supposed to expire naturally through a 'sunset clause' that gave it a two-year life but now the Government simply removes the sunset clause and the word 'Interim Protection' from the Act's title and it continues to operate. The CLC and other organisations are disappointed that the Act leaves the protection of sacred sites up to ministerial discretion rather than making it mandatory.

August

The Northern Territory Government establishes a committee, chaired by Solicitor-General Brian Martin, to review the operation of the Aboriginal Sacred Sites Protection Authority. The committee, which does not include any Aboriginal people, is asked to make recommendations regarding the Northern Territory legislation to 'protect areas which are sacred or otherwise of significance to Aboriginals'.

The Northern Territory Minister for Mines and Energy, Barry Coulter, proposes the establishment of a toxic waste incinerator near Warrego, west of Tennant Creek. The Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents of the Tennant Creek region join forces against the proposal and the Northern Territory Government backs down.

October

The CLC and other Aboriginal organisations convince the Commonwealth to revamp proposed amendments to the Land Rights Act. Amendments to the mining section are deferred so that the views of Aboriginal groups can be properly considered.

Agreement is reached in principle with the Commonwealth Minister for Communications to transfer title to 5.3 hectares of Telecom land at the old Barrow Creek Telegraph Station reserve to the Kaytetye people to set up a store, resource centre and museum.

December

The 1,700-kilometre Palm Valley-Darwin Pipeline is opened ahead of schedule. The CLC believes the success of this and other projects will show people that development can occur on Aboriginal land to the benefit of all Territorians.

1987

February

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.

March

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.

April

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.

May

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:

1. 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;
2. imposes a strict one-year negotiation limit for applications;
3. introduces a provision for a government-appointed arbitrator to settle disputes over exploration and mining agreements; and
4. 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.

June

The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Act 1987 receives assent on 5 June. The Northern Territory Department of Mines and Energy responds to the amendments with a flood of Exploration Lease Applications which it had withheld while waiting for the changes. Final evidence is heard in the Warumungu land claim. Two months later, final written submissions are received. It is nine years since the claim was first lodged. The Martin Committee delivers its report on sacred sites protection to the Chief Minister. The Committee recommends major changes which would give the Minister for Lands the power to override the Authority and authorise the desecration or destruction of sacred sites.

July

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.

September

During an interview at the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) in Alice Springs, Prime Minister Bob Hawke says he wants to make a treaty with Aboriginal people. I want to see an understanding in the Australian community that we have an obligation to the Aborigines of Australia – that in 200 years of European settlement there have been many grave injustices done. I think that as a people we ought to make a contract between one another. I don't think we should be hung up on the words. The important thing is that there be a clear statement of understanding by the total Australian community of the obligations that the community has to rectify so many of the injustices that have accumulated over 200 years. Prime Minister Bob Hawke, 2 September 1987 Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gerry Hand establishes a working party on stock route claims and excisions. The Central and Northern Land Councils, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Northern Territory Government are all represented, but the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association refuses to participate.

October

The CLC assists with the incorporation of Ngurratjuta Air Pty Ltd. The new airline is partly funded from royalty equivalents earned from mining on Aboriginal land and provides a light plane service to Aboriginal communities in Central Australia.

November

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.

December

In a speech to Parliament, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gerry Hand announces an intensive round of consultation with Aboriginal organisations Australia-wide to discuss reorganisation of Aboriginal and Islander affairs under a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission (ATSIC) based on elected regional councils. Development of a treaty or compact between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians is also part of the plan. Justice William Kearney retires as Aboriginal Land Commissioner. The new Aboriginal Land Commissioner will take up his appointment in May 1988.

1988

January

CLC members travel in a convoy with Aboriginal people from the Top End and the Kimberley to march in Sydney on Australia Day where an estimated 20,000 Aboriginal people join their supporters from the trade unions, the churches, ethnic groups and the wider community, in a demonstration of survival. A joint statement signed by the heads of fourteen church's calls for Aboriginal rights, including a secure land base.

More than twenty excision's applications are submitted to the Northern Territory Lands Department. For most of the year the Department fails to take the steps outlined in its own administrative guidelines, often taking ten months or more merely to inform the lessee an application has been lodged. CLC complains to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gerry Hand about the lack of progress.

March

A report released by the Anti-Slavery Society established in the late 18th century in London concludes that the plight of Australian Aborigines has not improved much in 150 years.

The CLC and Warlpiri traditional landowners sign an agreement with North Flinders Mines to allow exploration on over 5,000 square kilometer's of the Tanami Desert around the Granites. It is the first agreement negotiated from scratch under the Land Rights Act.

April

Matters come to a head on excisions. Admitting 'disappointing' progress, Northern Territory Lands Department representatives agree to an 'action list' drawn up with CLC and DAA. Only one excision has been negotiated under the guidelines in Central Australia in three years of operation. It becomes clear to CLC that the Federal Government's Working Party is unlikely to achieve a just settlement for Aboriginal people awaiting living areas on pastoral properties.

Major flooding resurrects the Northern Territory Government campaign for a lake north of the Alice Springs Telegraph Station, but this time the project is presented as a flood mitigation rather than a recreation lake. Chief Minister Steve Hatton blames the custodians who stopped the lake project for the deaths of three people during the floods. Werlatye Atherre is now on the National Estate Register, but custodians are horrified to find new bulldozer trenches in the area. The CLC responds to requests from traditional custodians to organise meetings to discuss how to protect the site.

We are talking for the Aboriginal people and families of Alice Springs. We demand an apology from the Chief Minister Mr Steve Hatton for his statements since last week's flood. He said the flood should be blamed on Aboriginal people because we have not given permission for the dam because of our sacred sites. This is not true and he knows it. The 1984 Board of Inquiry said that the Telegraph Station was not the right place for the dam and it wouldn't help stop a flood. What the government has done since then on flood mitigation has been four small things. We agreed with all of these, even though two of them went on our sacred sites. The Northern Territory Government has not been serious about flood mitigation. They keep talking about a recreation dam, but that won't stop the floods. The real problem. is the new developments in town, such as the Ford Resort, which causes flooding by blocking the overflow area from the Todd River into the boxwood swamp, and the Larapinta Valley and Mt John developments which cause big flows of water into the Todd River. Why has the Government allowed these new developments when we have warned them they make more trouble? Statement by custodian meeting

The Prime Minister's wife Hazel Hawke opens the new museum of art and culture at Yuelamu (Mt Allan). The land claim over the area, which is an Aboriginal-owned cattle station, remains blocked because of Northern Territory Government litigation.

May

Mr Justice Howard Olney takes up his position as the new Aboriginal Land Commissioner.

June

The Chairman of Telecom hands over a letter of 'permissive occupancy' for parts of the Barrow Creek Telegraph Station to the Kaytetye traditional landowners. Telecom's attempts to simply transfer title to the traditional landowners have been frustrated by the Northern Territory Government for the last two years. The CLC will assist the traditional owners to establish the Thangkenharenge Resource Centre and other facilities on the 4.5-hectare site.

CLC Chairman Wenten Rubuntja and NLC Chairman Galarrwuy Yunupingu present Prime Minister Bob Hawke with the Barunga Statement – a petition seeking government recognition of Aboriginal prior ownership of Australia and calling for a treaty. The Prime Minister agrees it is up to Aboriginal people to determine what should be in such a document.

Today there are lots of people living in this country. People who have come from all over the world. But we don't call them foreigners. We don't ask 'Where's your country? Where's your father from?' They have been born here. Their mother's blood is in this country. It doesn't matter if their father's father came from Indonesia or Japan or some other place. This is their country too now. So all of us have to live together. We have to look after each other. We have to share this country. And this means respecting each other's laws and culture. That's how it should be. We've all got to live like that. Teach each other and look after each other. We have to work out a way of sharing this country, but there has to be an understanding of and respect of our culture, our law. Hopefully that's what this Treaty will mean. CLC Chairman Wenten Rubuntja

In the Lake Amadeus land claim, Justice Michael Maurice finds against the majority of claimants represented by the CLC because the traditional land tenure principle relied upon by some claimants doesn't fit the model required by the Land Rights Act. Justice Maurice recommends that two small areas of land be granted. The recommended areas lie within Kings Creek Station, which was leased to Ian Conway and Tim Lander after the land claim was lodged.

Over the last twelve months, the Northern Territory Government gave consent to negotiate to applicants holding fifty-nine Exploration Lease Applications (ELAs) – double the number of the previous year – but the Government's assessment of the financial and technical capabilities of the 'miners' is inadequate and half the companies don't pursue their applications. On instruction from traditional owners, CLC engages in negotiations with six companies over thirteen ELAs.

July

Angkerle Aboriginal Corporation purchases the Standley Chasm Kiosk, a successful tourist business operating on Aboriginal land near the chasm. The CLC assists Angkerle with legal advice and funding applications. The kiosk sells locally produced arts and crafts and employs several traditional owners, including a trainee manager and Angkerle plans to open a restaurant and an art gallery.

Almost a decade after the Warumungu land claim was lodged, Land Commissioner Maurice recommends the grant of 6,400 square kilometer's, but excludes a large area on the eastern side and two smaller areas because he isn't satisfied that traditional land ownership has been proved. Repeat claims are lodged and additional research begun.

In his report, Maurice notes: The country as a whole has profited, and continues to profit, from the dispossession of these people, and the use to which we put their lands. It is not simply a question of rectifying the wrongs of the past, as if the consequences of those wrongs had long ago been worked through: the simple truth is that they have not, yet as a nation we continue to enjoy the benefits from them.

August

23

The first resolution passed in the Commonwealth's new Parliament House is a recognition of Aboriginal people's prior ownership of Australia and their entitlement to self-management and self-determination. The resolution was drawn up by fourteen major churches.

The Queen, and the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia acknowledge that: Australia was occupied by Aborigine's and Torres Strait Islanders who had settled for thousands of years before British settlement at Sydney Cove on January 26, 1788;

Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders suffered dispossession and dispersal upon acquisition of their traditional lands by the British Crown; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were denied full citizenship rights of the Commonwealth of Australia prior to May 27, 1967;

And affirm: The importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage; The entitlement of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders to self-management and self-determination subject to the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia; And consider it desirable that the Commonwealth further promote reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens providing recognition of their special place in the Commonwealth of Australia.

September

The United Nations' Working Group on Indigenous Populations says that Australian governments are in violation of international human rights obligations in their discriminatory treatment of Aboriginal and Islander people.

In an attempt to resolve some of the detriment issues in the Warumungu land claim, CLC proposes a broad lease-back arrangement involving land adjoining the town boundaries to the Tennant Creek Town Council and the Northern Territory Government. The Government doesn't respond.

The McLaren Creek land claim hearing starts at the station homestead.

October

Traditional owners receive title to the Yuelamu (Mt Allan) pastoral lease, nine years after the claim was lodged. It is the first land handed back in the CLC region for two years. Title was delayed three years by Northern Territory Government legal actions, and even after the handover the Northern Territory Government goes to the Federal Court to try and prevent the title being registered.

The CLC and NLC's joint Land Rights News receives a special citation in the 1988 United Nations Media Peace Awards and the 1988 Print Newspaper Award of the Australian Human Rights Commission. The Northern Territory budget for drilling and equipping water supplies on excisions is slashed by more than half. It is only enough to provide water to three or four sites Territory-wide.

CLC institutes a computer database of water resources and needs and plans to establish independent Central Australian Aboriginal Water Supply Units to give Aboriginal people skills and equipment to find and maintain their own supplies.

The Northern Territory Government introduces a Bill to replace the Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act with new legislation which would weaken Aboriginal control over the protection of sacred sites.

November

Mr Long Pwerle is elected as the new Chairman when the CLC meets at Harts Range. Mr Long is a Kaytetye man. His grandmother's country is Barrow Creek and his grandfather's country is Willowra. Mr Long lives at Alekarenge and already has a long history of involvement in Aboriginal organisations including the Central Land Council and the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee.Geoff Shaw is re-elected Deputy Chairman.

A Perth-based mining company, Frankenfeld Quarries applies to the Aboriginal Sacred Sites Protection Authority for clearance to mine the Devils Pebbles – an outcrop of granite boulders twelve kilometres north of Tennant Creek. The company wants to quarry granite for decorative tiles. When the authority consults the traditional landowners they refuse permission and apply for the sacred site to be registered.

December

The Northern Territory Government's Strehlow Research Centre Act goes into effect. The Act, which was introduced without consulting Aboriginal people, controls the future of Aboriginal artifacts, sacred objects and other culturally important material collected by T.G.H. Strehlow, a renowned anthropologist who was born at Hermannsburg Mission and later worked as a patrol officer in Central Australia.

There is no requirement for Aboriginal representation on the Board of Management or provision for the involvement of appropriate Aboriginal people in decisions about the collection. CLC asks the Commonwealth Government to withhold any financial assistance. Atula Pastoral Lease is purchased by the Aboriginal Development Commission with CLC's assistance. A land claim is lodged over the property.

1989

January

CLC opens a southwest regional office at Mutitjulu community near Uluru. Traditional landowners are shocked to find a front-end loader and other machinery at Kunjarra (Devils Pebbles), a registered sacred site near Tennant Creek. The Northern Territory Government has given a mining company approval to work on the area despite the opposition of custodians. When discussions with the mining company fail, traditional landowners obtain a court injunction to stop the work and maintain a protest camp for more than six weeks until the company retreats. The Devils Pebbles/Kunjarra Munga Munga Dreaming is being threatened by the mining company. It is very sad to see our country being destroyed by taking our life on the land and just leaving the marks on our body and the song to sing and talk about, and nothing to look back where once our grandparents walked upon. Christine Napanangka Plummer and Patrice Napurrula Frank.

February

The Northern Territory Government withdraws its proposed Aboriginal Areas Protection Bill for 'further consultation' following the protests of Aboriginal people throughout the Northern Territory. The Land Councils jointly draft 'minimum standards' for sacred sites protection. The cornerstone is the absolute right of Aboriginal custodians to control protection of sacred sites.

The CLC reaches agreement with Otter Exploration N.L. to permit exploration over 3,091 square kilometres of the Tanami. The agreement includes sacred sites protection, opportunities for Aboriginal employment and compensation for traditional owners. Company representatives commend CLC for the 'excellent spirit' of the negotiations.

The Northern Territory Government goes to the Federal Court to try and block the grant of land in the Lake Amadeus land claim. They want a declaration that the lease granted to Conway and Lander after the land claim was lodged is valid.

April

At a meeting called by the Northern Territory Power and Water Authority (PAWA), senior women custodians from four language groups conclusively reject the Alice Springs Telegraph Station dam proposal by demonstrating powerfully their continuing spiritual links with the site. PAWA promises to explore alternative sites upstream.

CLC enters into three exploration agreements with Tanami Joint Venture (TJV) covering 7,374 square kilometres of Aboriginal land. In addition to sacred site protection, compensation and employment opportunities, traditional landowners are also eligible to take up an equity interest in any mining venture that might ensue.

TJV, as operators of the Tanami mine, have established a very good relationship with the local Aboriginal people. This relationship and the constructive and positive approach adopted by the company contributed to the speed and success of negotiations. These agreements are a further example of the capacity of traditional landowners to enter into commercial ventures and to contribute to the responsible economic development of the Northern Territory. Mr Long Pwerle, CLC Chairman

The first part of the Wakaya-Alyawarr land claim hearing begins. A last-minute settlement offer by Northern Territory Government is accepted by one group of traditional landowners but rejected by eight others who pursue the land claim. The offer provides for Northern Territory freehold title which is not as strong or secure as title under the Land Rights Act.

May

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission (ATSIC) Bill is introduced into Federal Parliament. It will dissolve DAA and establish elected regional Aboriginal councils and a national Aboriginal council to make decisions about policy and allocation of funds. On the same day, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Hand says the Federal Government will legislate to provide living areas on Northern Territory pastoral leases because of the Northern Territory Government's inaction.

CLC Director Pat Dodson welcomes Mr Hand's announcement: It is important that everyone is clear about how little land is being talked about. In Central Australia the average size of pastoral leases is about 3,000 square kilometres. The living areas that are needed average ten to fifteen square kilometres. No one is talking about the wholesale transfer of land. Pat Dodson, CLC Director

A Federal Court judge dismisses the Northern Territory Government appeal to block registration of the title to Mt Allan and orders the government to pay all costs. The Northern Territory Government appeals to the full bench of the Federal Court. The case is later settled out of court when the Government agrees to drop its legal action and pay the CLC's costs and traditional landowners agree to open two station roads to the public.

June

Five Arrernte families establish a protest camp alongside the Stuart Highway fifty kilometres north of Alice Springs to highlight their fourteen-year fight for living areas on Yambah Station.

We have set up the camp close to the highway to let the public know, and to let the Government here in the Territory know, that this is how we have been living for the past five years and we have had enough. We want it to stop. We have had a lot of travellers from interstate, and from town, come in because they are curious. We tell them what is happening and show them how we are living and they have shown us support by signing our petition.

Margie Lynch, spokesperson for Mpweringe-Arnapipe Council.

July

Pat Dodson leaves CLC to return to his own country around Broome in Western Australia. He is appointed to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Kumantjayi Ross becomes CLC Director. Mr Ross, who was born and raised in Alice Springs, started work with the CLC in 1979 and is a business management graduate who had been Deputy Director since 1988.

A University of Sydney report, commissioned by the CLC and other Alice Springs Aboriginal organisations, shows that Aboriginal wages, benefits and programs account for one-third of the Central Australian economy.

September

The Prime Minister and the Chief Minister sign a Memorandum of Agreement on excisions. Facing the threat of Commonwealth amendments to incorporate an excisions process in the Land Rights Act the Northern Territory agrees to amend the Crown Lands Act so that Aboriginal people can apply for excisions from pastoral leases. The Commonwealth agrees to hand back title to some stock routes and reserves to Aboriginal claimants. The hope is that the two processes will be enough to meet the land needs of 'the people that land rights forgot' – people whose traditional land has been taken by the pastoral industry.

The Northern Territory Government agrees to establish a tribunal to arbitrate on applications refused by the Minister for Lands, but the land councils are not consulted on the agreement and the compromise doesn't recognise applications based on traditional ownership.

October

The Miscellaneous Act Amendment (Aboriginal Community Living Areas) Act passes through the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. The Act is supposed to provide a framework for excisions but does not live up to the terms agreed between the Commonwealth and Northern Territory Governments in the Memorandum of Agreement. The CLC is particularly concerned at the long waiting periods written into the application procedure.

November

The Central Land Council meeting at Arrawajin, south-east of Tennant Creek, affirms its opposition to the Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act and calls on the Commonwealth Government to take action to protect sacred sites under the Land Rights Act in a unanimous resolution:

As custodians of Aboriginal Sacred Sites we know Aboriginal Law does not change. We will not let changes to whitefella law allow the possible deliberate destruction of our sites. All custodians of Aboriginal Sacred Sites will keep on standing strong to protect our Sacred Sites as our people have for more than 40,000 years.

The CLC Chairman Mr Long Pwerle calls on the Commonwealth Government to withhold Commonwealth funding from the proposed Strehlow Research Centre which will house the Strehlow collection of sacred objects, artefacts, films and anthropological information. The Northern Territory Government has already passed an Act to establish the research and tourist centre without consulting Aboriginal people.

The Act has to be changed to make sure that appropriate Aboriginal people control the collection, and that the traditional custodians are able to decide what happens to their property. If some custodians want their objects back then they should be given back, but according to the Strehlow Act it is illegal to give anything back. Long Pwerle, CLC Chairman

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission (ATSIC) Act is passed. The Act provides a national elected representative structure for Commonwealth Aboriginal Affairs. It is one of the most amended pieces of legislation in the history of the Commonwealth Parliament and is passed despite the strenuous objections of the Northern Territory Government.

December

In the Lake Amadeus land claim, the Federal Court declares the 'lease' of Kings Creek Station invalid because the land already had been claimed under the Land Rights Act. The decision is a significant victory and has flow-on effects to other land claims, but the after effects of the 'lease' are complicated. The lessees sue the Northern Territory Government for compensation but refuse to deal with the CLC. Their investment at Kings Creek becomes a major stumbling block to the land being handed back to traditional landowners.

The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Act 1989 is passed, adding twenty-six portions of stock routes and stock reserves in the CLC area to Schedule I of the Land Rights Act. As the scheduled areas are handed back and become Aboriginal land, traditional landowners withdraw their claims on other stock routes and reserves. This concludes the long-running dispute with the Northern Territory Government and the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association over stock route land claims.

In November 1989 Don Lynch spoke to Land Rights News:

Before Kidman got that country, we had that land. The land was there all the time. They put their mark around the boundary - that's whitefella way. When they put that line they cut our country in half. But we had our map all the time since the earth was put up. The Aboriginal map is different than squares. It's just like a snake, not square. Between tree and tree, hill and hill, that's how we follow our story. All the country's named. Just like when the white man dug out and named the bore - Ironwood Bore, Snake Well, Top Bore and all them. But all of them have got Aboriginal names, different names. Today you see one hill there and 'No you can't go across, that's the boundary!' They got surveyor's pegs there. 'No you can't go there that's the station, you might get shot.' 'What I want now is to get a bit of land for my kids while I'm still alive. We're entitled to our land. We're entitled to that land, because it's my father's and grandfather's land, it belongs to us. We only want a small bit, an excision. That station owner, his father used to visit the camps and play with the kids when he was young. We grew him up. He was eating goanna, sugar ants and everything with us. We taught him Arrernte language. In 1984 we moved back up to Yambah and set up camp on that stock route. At first we thought we'd stay a few months camping then we'd get a proper place, but we're still waiting, more than five years now. It's been a hard time. We've had to pay ourselves to get water trucked up from town. That young fella [the station owner] tried to put us over in the corner on the western side, but that's different country for different Aboriginals. That doesn't belong to us. Now we're going to get that stock route [Black Tank Bore] but we still want to talk about an excision. There's only three old blokes left holding that country now. That stock routes all right but I still want to get an excision over on the eastern side at Alparla, near the Bond Springs boundary. That's still the place I want - my country.

1990

January

The CLC establishes a north-west regional office at Kalkarindji, near Daguragu.

The new Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) issues a work certificate authorising the Northern Territory Government's proposed flood mitigation dam on the Todd River at Junction Waterhole, nine kilometres north of Alice Springs. The Junction Waterhole dam will damage and desecrate known sacred sites, including one which will be permanently submerged under water. Many of the initial consultations have been conducted by Northern Territory Government ministers and staff from the Department of Mines and Energy rather than the AAPA. Not only have many traditional landowners been left out of discussions but a lot of confusion has been created about the basic facts of the proposal – one tour of the dam site took traditional landowners to a site two kilometers away.

February

Senior women custodians for Kunjarra (Devils Pebbles) complain to police about harassment by a mining developer, Lutz Frankenfeld, who wants permission to quarry granite from Kunjarra. The custodians refused permission to mine the area when Mr Frankenfelds's company applied to the former Aboriginal Sacred Sites Protection Authority in November 1988, and now he visits senior custodians at their homes claiming to have been encouraged to approach them directly by a Northern Territory Government minister. The harassment highlights the problems of the amended Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act under which the Minister for Lands can release confidential information including the names of custodians.

He was talking sweet to us. Talking about royalties for our sacred sites. I told him I'm sorry he cannot have that sacred site and I showed him other stones he can have that are not sacred.

Kumanjayi Nelson Napurrula

When the CLC attempts to clarify the procedures for excision applications under the Northern Territory Government's new legislation, the Minister for Lands informs the CLC that there are no administrative guidelines. Although many pastoral living area applications under Northern Territory legislation date back nearly fifteen years, more than 130 current applications must now start from scratch. The CLC attempts to begin direct negotiations with pastoralists, but most refuse to participate on the advice of the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gerry Hand hands over title to 2,641 square kilometres of land, the Chilla Well land claim, north-west of Alice Springs. This is the first area handed back in the CLC region since Mt Allan in October 1988.

March

The ALP is returned to government, although by a much slimmer margin. The CLP campaign in the Territory focussed on Aboriginal issues but local Labor member Warren Snowdon is returned to office with an increased vote – the only swing towards Labor anywhere in Australia. The Land Councils renew their call for consultations on a treaty.

April

Robert Tickner is appointed as the new Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

The CLC signs a new exploration agreement with North Flinders Mines at Lajamanu. The agreement reached between traditional landowners and the company covers 138 square kilometres adjoining the existing Granites Gold Mine. CLC enters into an agreement with Magellan Petroleum for exploration over 15,859 square kilometres in the Ngalia Basin, which extends from west of Nyirrpi through Yuendumu towards the Stuart Highway. About half of the area to be explored is on Aboriginal land and this is the first oil and gas exploration permit issued in the CLC area since the 1987 amendments to the Land Rights Act.

In that time the CLC has negotiated mining company access to 35,000 square kilometres of Aboriginal land. Ninety-four exploration applications have been received and eighty per cent of these have been processed. Ninety-five per cent of the Northern Territory's mineral output by value comes from Aboriginal land.

May

Aboriginal Land Commissioner Olney recommends that only part of the Wakaya-Alyawarr land claim be handed back after ruling that some traditional landowners are unable to fit the criteria in the Land Rights Act. The decision is a major disappointment to the traditional landowners, since it means a large area, which includes the Canteen Creek community, is not recommended for grant.

June

The Power and Water Authority releases a 280-page draft Environmental Impact Statement for the 'Proposed Flood Mitigation and Recreation Dam' at Junction Waterhole. It's the first public information released on the dam and many custodians are shocked and angry. They reject claims that they approved the project and approach the CLC for help. The Land Council employs a dam engineer, Dr Stephen Webb, to evaluate the project.

A CLC delegation joins indigenous representatives from around the world at the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) in Geneva, and the World Council of Indigenous Peoples and the International Indigenous Women's Conference in Norway. The WGIP meets annually to work towards an international standard for the protection of indigenous rights.

When I went to Norway and Tromsø these two ladies took me to their house for a cup of tea and they were asking me lots of questions. They belong to that place, and I was telling them we've got to show something to our children, so our children can grow up really strong. So they can look out on their own country and their own sacred sites. We got to do that. We got to fight for our children and our land, and we got to put our children to carry on. And they were really pleased.

Kumanjayi Napurrula, CLC delegate to the World Council for Indigenous Peoples, 1990.

August

The National Federation of Land Councils calls on the Federal Government to honour its promise of a treaty with Aboriginal people, rejecting a proposed 'instrument of reconciliation'. August, One of Australia's leading dam engineers, Dr Stephen Webb, tells custodians that the proposed dam at Junction Waterhole is poorly designed and unsuitable for flood mitigation. Dr Webb was engaged by the CLC to provide custodians with an independent assessment of the dam proposal. Custodians reiterate their opposition to the dam but Northern Territory Government officials, including the Chief Minister, Marshall Perron, claim they have already given their approval.

CLC Director Kumanjayi Ross says that the mishandling of the dam highlights the failure of the new sacred sites legislation:

They've been playing this dam every which way. They told the non-Aboriginal people that they had the sacred sites clearance to build this dam. That's a lie. They told Aboriginal people that they were proposing a flood mitigation dam that would save lives. That's a lie. And they told everyone that this full dam proposal was the best way to solve the town's flood problem. Well, now that we've had an independent expert examine the proposal we all know that this dam is a waste of money that would never do the job.

Kumanjayi Ross, CLC Director

September

The Aboriginal Rabbit Control Program is established at Mutitjulu and Imanpa communities to reduce the feral population, provide meat for community stores and employment for community members.

Chief Minister Marshall Perron calls on the Commonwealth Government to transfer control of the Land Rights Act to the Northern Territory Government. He wants to end land claims, remove the traditional landowner's right to consent to mining, weaken sacred sites protection, reduce funding for the Land Councils, and the break-up of the Land Councils into smaller groups.

Speaking on behalf of Aboriginal people throughout Central Australia we say that land rights must stay with the Commonwealth Government because the Northern Territory Government has fought against land rights for many years and is not trusted by Aboriginal people. CLC resolution, Negri River 17 October 1990

Centrecorp signs a joint venture agreement for a $17-million wilderness lodge at Watarrka (Kings Canyon) National Park. The resort is to include a three-star 100-room lodge, 160 backpacker beds, and extensive caravan and camping grounds.

We want to be part of everything that happens in the Northern Territory – the whole growth of this place. We want to be able to benefit from what happens in the Northern Territory because besides you people it belongs to us also, and the rest of Australia. CLC Deputy Chairman Geoff Shaw

CLC signs two mining agreements authorising two new gold mines -one at Dead Bullock Soak with North Flinders Mines (NFM) and one at Tanami with the Tanami Joint Venturers (TJV). Both mines were explored for and brought to production under the Land Rights Act.

This project has moved smoothly and quickly from exploration to production under the provisions of the Land Rights Act. TJV has built a strong and positive relationship with Aboriginal people and their representatives in the CLC that has been of benefit to us all. Mike Palmer, TJV General Manager

October

Northern Territory Freehold Title for Gosse Bluff Scientific Reserve is granted to members of Tnorula Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the traditional landowners. The corporation then leases the area back to the Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory for a period of ninety-nine years. The grant follows years of disappointment and negotiation following the secret alienation of the area in 1984, which prevented traditional owners from claiming the land under the Land Rights Act. A local management committee with four traditional owners and two CCNT representatives is proposed to advise on day-to-day management.

The first applications for community living areas are lodged by the CLC under the Crown Lands Act which the Northern Territory Government amended following the Memorandum of Agreement on living areas. Sixteen applications will be lodged over the next eighteen months but only four pastoralists are willing to negotiate.

November

ATSIC Regional Council elections are held throughout Australia. CLC Deputy Chair Geoff Shaw is elected Commissioner for the Central Australian Zone and Chairman of the Alice Springs ATSIC Regional Council.

1991

January

The Northern Territory Government releases the Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Junction Waterhole dam. The report says that custodians have been consulted by the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) and given approval for sites to be destroyed. The objections of custodians, which have been made publicly and in submissions to the Government since the project was announced, are ignored. CLC seeks a declaration from the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Robert Tickner, to protect the sites under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Heritage Protection Act. Northern Territory Chief Minister Marshall Perron tells Alice Springs residents that work on the dam will commence in May.

February

After two years of intensive hearings and investigations the Royal Commission into Aborig