Aborigines’ Land Rights Claim “Not Frivolous”

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31994, 22 May 1969, Page 9

Aborigines’ Land Rights Claim “Not Frivolous”

(X.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) SYDNEY, May 21. Champions of Aboriginal land rights in Australia have been given hope by a ruling in the Northern Territory Supreme Court. In a decision handed down in parwin, Mr Justice Blackburn virtually upheld the Yirrkala tribe’s challenge to land rights over an area held for a multi-million dollars bauxite project. The Aborigines’ action against the Commonwealth and Nabalco mining consortium was not settled, and the judge struck out the Aborigines’ statement of claim; but he gave them the opportunity to submit fresh claims, and said he did not find the action frivolous or an abuse of the process of the court. This had been argued by the. company’s lawyers when they asked that the claim be summarily dealt with and dismissed. £ The legal tussle, which Mri

Justice Blackburn said was of the greatest importance, is over land rights to the 50-square-mile Gove Peninsula, at the extreme north-east tip of the Northern Territory, on which Commonwealth and Nabalco has a s3oom bauxite project. The clans of the Yirrkala tribe claim they have' owned the land since time immemorial, and that the mining company is there without consent. Nabalco, which already has spent s6m in the development of its leases, does not agree with this. The court case may be the forerunner of similar legal wrangles over land rights and titles. The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders announced recently a campaign to establish claims for special land rights throughout Australia. The council has called on Aborigines to reassert their 1 rights, and has asked for the support of churches, political parties, unions, youth and student organisations, and : specialist groups.

> The foundation of the coun- • cil’s claim on behalf of the Aborigines is the belief that . Australia has never properly i become Crown land. It says: “The appropriation of all Australian lands by the Crown, States and the Commonwealth from its Aboriginal occupants was an act that cannot now. or in the • future, be justified morally or legally in the face of natural and present international law.” A memorandum on the council’s land rights campaign is to be distributed in New Zealand, Nauru. Fiji, > African States and the United • Nations.