Central Land Council

LAST LAND CLAIM UNDERWAY

What’s expected to be the last land rights claim in the Central Land Council region got underway during a recent bush sitting of the Aboriginal Land Commissioner.

The opening evidence was heard before Aboriginal Land Commissioner Howard Olney in the claim area just south of Atula Station on the northern edge of the Simpson Desert last week.

The Simpson Desert Land Claim Stage IV is over about 18,000 square kilometres of land, some of which was previously subject to claim during the Simpson Desert Land Claim Stage II.

Traditional owners from the area presented Commissioner Olney with evidence of their links to the land under the latest claim during the sittings from June the 30th to July the 3rd.
The area is so isolated that some sittings were held after a helicopter flight deep into the Simpson Desert.

Other sittings were held in Alice Springs later that week.

The Central Land Council is representing the Eastern Arrernte claimants in the case, many of whom are presently living at Santa Teresa, and as far afield as Urandangie in Queensland.

The claim is part of another that was first lodged in 1980. Over the years there have been four earlier land claim hearings to other parts of the original land claim. As a result of amendments to the Land Rights Act no further land claims will proceed in the Central Australian region.

CLC director David Ross said the land rights era has been a lengthy and exhausting process for all involved.

“Time after time people have had to come forward to repeat their stories, share private aspects of their culture to prove ownership of their land,” Mr Ross said.

“But they’ve done more than that, they’ve shown their determination to keep their culture alive and their resilience in the face of all that has happened since European settlement.

“For claimants, the land rights process has given them public recognition of their law and their efforts to maintain that law since the upheaval of settlement and the takeover of their land.

“Wins under the Land Rights Act have meant people have been able to look after their country, hunt on their country and increasingly derive economic opportunities from the land,” Mr Ross said.

There will be more evidence in the Simpson claim next week and after final submissions are made by the parties, the commissioner will complete his report later this year.

11 July 2008
Contact: Murray Silby, CLC media officer.
(08) 8951 6216; 0488984 885