The willingness of parties to work together to find fair and enduring native title outcomes has led to the proposed settlement of the Mirarr People’s claim over the town of Jabiru—one of the Northern Territory’s longest running native title claims.
The National Native Title Tribunal’s Northern Territory manager Tony Shelley today congratulated parties on the native title settlement deal that had been developed through negotiations, rather than an expensive court hearing.
Mr Shelley acknowledged the commitment of the Mirrar People, the NT Government, the Commonwealth Government and Energy Resources of Australia, which operates the Ranger uranium mine on the outskirts of the town of Jabiru.
The settlement includes a land grant to the Mirarr People under the Northern Territory Aboriginal Land Rights Act and preservation of their existing interests in Jabiru.
“This would not have been possible without the willingness of the main parties to keep working at finding solutions to the complex problems and unusual issues that arose in this case,” he said.
The Jabiru claim over 68.352sq km in and around the township of Jabiru, in Kakadu National Park, was lodged on 9 September 1997.
The Tribunal’s Deputy President Chris Sumner began mediating between parties on 17 May 2005, first exploring the legal positions on the possible extinguishment of native title.
“When no agreement could be reached on the legal issues, the parties tried to resolve the claim in other more practical ways,” Mr Shelley said.
“They looked at the long term future of Jabiru, the role of the town after uranium mining, the recognition of Mirarr as traditional Aboriginal owners, new town management and development arrangements, and the ongoing protection of Kakadu National Park.”
Mr Shelley said the policy issues were complex and involved Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments at the ministerial and cabinet level, as well as a number of their agencies.
“It was a big job to coordinate a whole of government response here,” he said. “But the commitment from the parties meant this was eventually achieved.” |