The National Native Title Tribunal has registered the 20th indigenous land use agreement (ILUA) for Western Australia, bringing the total number of agreements on the ILUA register Australia-wide to 423.

A prescribed body corporate ILUA between Broome’s Yawuru People, the WA Government and the Broome Shire Council was registered with the Tribunal on 24 May.

The ILUA relates to a 616sq km area of land and water near Broome, including part of the Rubibi native title determination area.

The ILUA allows for the future development of Broome while also recognising and protecting indigenous heritage and the environment, as well as providing compensation to the Yawuru community for the loss and impairment of their native title rights and interests.

This agreement and the associated area agreement ILUA, which were both signed on 25 February and then lodged with the Tribunal on 3 March, include a $196 million package comprising land and money for the Yawuru People.

The Yawuru People’s area agreement ILUA is still in the notification stage—this will conclude in August.

The two ILUAs resolve all native title and compensation issues over about 5,300sq km of land in and around Broome, which the Federal Court had previously found to be subject to native title.
 
The WA Government allocated $10.2m of its 2010-2011 State Budget to implement the Yawuru Agreement—described as Australia’s largest native title agreement.

Use the links on the right of this page to find out more about native title and the Yawuru People.