| A Western Australian native title application stretching from Guilderton to Southern Cross and south to Corrigin has been formally rejected by the National Native Title Tribunal.
The application, by Mr Neil Phillips on behalf of Pandawn descendants, was lodged on 28 January 1997 over an area of more than 41,000 square kilometres.
It is the sixteenth application rejected nationwide since the advent of the Tribunal in 1994. There were currently 678 active applications nationwide before the Tribunal for mediation.
Tribunal Registrar Chris Doepel today said under the Native Title Act there were only three grounds on which the Tribunal could reject an application - if on the face of it, it could not be made out; if the application was frivolous or vexatious; or if the application was not in the proper form.
Mr Doepel said the application was referred to Tribunal President Justice Robert French. After careful consideration, it was rejected on the grounds that on the face of it, it could not be made out - that is, it could not succeed.
"The material supplied by the applicant did not identify a community of indigenous people who are the native title holders and from whom the applicants are descended. People who may have to respond to the application are entitled to know who they are dealing with and the nature and basis of the native title rights and interests claimed," Mr Doepel said.
The Registrar said under section 169 of the Native Title Act 1993, the applicants could appeal the decision to the Federal Court within 28 days.
Another native title application by Mr Phillips on behalf of Pandawn descendants, and covering 166,000 square kilometres of the Gascoyne and Wheatbelt regions, could not be successfully mediated and was referred to the Federal Court for resolution on 1 April 1998. |