Native title recognised in Central Desert
| 18/10/2007 |
The Ngururrpa people of Western Australia's central desert region will today have their native title rights recognised less than 12 months after first lodging their claim.
The Ngururrpa people, represented by the Central Desert Native Title Service (CDNTS), and the Government of Western Australia have reached agreement that native title should be recognised over about 29,719 sq km of land in the Great Sandy Desert.
The determination recognises that the Ngururrpa people have the exclusive native title rights to possess, occupy, use and enjoy certain areas of land.* The only exception is for the flowing and subterranean water, where the native title holders have the non-exclusive right to take water for personal, domestic, or non-commercial communal purposes.
Chief Justice Michael Black will make the determination at a Federal Court hearing south of the Balgo Community.
The Ngururrpa people's native title application was filed in the Federal Court on 8 December 2006 and referred by the court to the National Native Title Tribunal for mediation on 14 June 2007. There were no other parties to the proceedings so the State and the CDNTS were able to reach a fast resolution of the issues.
Ruth Wade, Tribunal member, said it was pleasing to see native title claims progress so quickly and with such a spirit of cooperation.
‘The Ngururrpa people, the CDNTS and the WA government have worked well to reach this consent determination. They showed a strong commitment to reaching an agreement, taking less than 12 months from the lodgement of the native title claim to today's consent determination.’
‘This is a great achievement and hopefully it is a sign of things to come in resolving other native title claims in Western Australia,’ she said. ‘It is clear that the Ngururrpa people have a very strong connection to their land and now they will be able to continue their traditional ways with legal recognition of their rights,’ she said.
* Where there has not been any extinguishment or where extinguishment has to be disregarded. Native title cannot be claimed when certain things have been done with the land, such as freehold grants, grants of exclusive possession, residential and other leases and public works like roads and hospitals.
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