Court backs up intertidal land rights

Traditional Owners have had their rights over sea country reinforced by a Federal Court ruling supporting a string of positive recommendations on land claims stretching from the Marra Aboriginal Land Trust to the Robinson River in the Top End's Gulf Country.

In three separate land claim hearings earlier this year, the Land Commissioner recommended that intertidal land situated between the high and low water marks, as well as the beds and banks of various rivers flowing into the Gulf, be handed back to the traditional owners.

The first recommendation was made in regard to the McArthur River Region Land Claim and part of the Manangoora Region Land Claim; the second was made in regard to the Maria Island and Limmen Bight River Land Claim and the Maria Island Region Land Claim; and the third was made in regard to the Lorella Region Land Claim and the Maria Island Land Claim.

The NT appealed against all of the recommendations. It argued that the Aboriginal Land Commissioner should not have recommended that the land be handed back because the traditional owners do not want to live on the land. The NT also argued that the intertidal zone

could not be granted under the Act

- except where it adjoins an Aboriginal land trust.

On 3 September the Full Bench of the Federal Court ruled against the NTGovernment by upholding the Land Commissioner's prior recommendations. The Court did not accept that land should only be granted to an Aboriginal land trust in circumstances where traditional owners want to live on the land.

The Court held that such a narrow interpretation of land rights is:

inconsistent with the recognition by the (Aboriginal Land Rights) Act . . . of the spiritual dimensions of traditional ownership. It is a concept which runs much wider than physical occupancy of a particular location.

the Court found.