Central Land Council

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!

MT PEACHY
Claim lodged: 20 August 1980
Title date: 23 May 1991
Area: 85 sq km

OORATIPPRA
Claim lodged: 22 April 1980
Title date: 23 May 1991
Area: 220 sq km

UNDOOLYA BORE
Claim lodged: 7 September 1981
Title date: 23 May 1991
Area: 14 sq km

Aboriginal Land Trust members from Undoolya Bore (10 km east of Alice Springs), Ooratippra (400 km north east of Alice Springs) and Mt Peachy (100 km south of Alice Springs) travelled to Tennant Creek to receive title to their land on the day of the Warumungu Part 1 handover. Senior Arrernte man Patrick Hayes accepted title to Undoolya Bore on behalf of the Melknge Aboriginal Land Trust. The Hayes family have been living on this area since 1984 when, frustrated at being unable to obtain their traditional country through negotiations, they began squatting on the area with nothing more than a few tents. The struggle for their land in those days was led by Mr Hayes father who unfortunately passed away without seeing the title to even this small part of his country handed back.

The title paper for Mt Peachy was accepted by Sid Kenny on behalf of his father Jack, who is chairman of the Mpwelarre Land Trust. Jack Kenny, an Arrernte man, who was born at Mr Burrell south of Mt Peachy, moved back out to his country in 1981. Unit 1988 he lived in a makeshift shed and carted water two kilometres from Walkabout Bore. Jack's daughter Mary Ross said that her parents moved out to Mt Peachy to escape from living conditions in Alice Springs. "I don't think they would have survived in town somehow," she said. "They were that used to being out bush and then they came in. They tried living in town - mum was getting sick all the time and dad just felt like he was in the middle of everything. The wanted to get out. "We've been waiting for it for lots and lots of years and it's really good to have it back and that it finally belongs to family."

The Ooratippra Land Claim was lodged on behalf of Alyawarre people in 1980. The traditional owners were dispersed from the area by conflicts with hostile pastoralists in the 1920s and 1930s. They were forced to move hundreds of kilometres east to Lake Nash and even Camooweal in Queensland. The title to this area was accepted by Roy Rusty, the Chairman of Irrmane Aboriginal Land Trust and his son Stuart, a member of the CLC Executive. The traditional owners plan to fence the area which will provide a living area for about fifty people.