Aboriginal Land Commissioner Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 Aboriginal Land Commissioner Report for year ended 30 June 2006 Report for the year ended 30 June 2006 ABORIGINAL LAND RIGHTS (NORTHERN TERRITORY) ACT 1976 ABORIGINAL LAND COMMISSIONER Report for the year ended 30 June 2006 Office of the Aboriginal Land Commissioner 9–11 Cavenagh Street DARWIN NT 0800 © Commonwealth of Australia 1999 ISSN 0728 8875 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth available from Ausinfo. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Manager, Legislative Services, Ausinfo, GPO Box 1920, GPO Canberra 2601. Produced by the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. PRINTED BY: LG2 Designers, Canberra (ii) (iii) CONTENTS Subject Page Annual Report 1 Aboriginal Land Commissioner 1 Functions of the Commissioner 1 Administrative Arrangements 3 New Applications 3 Reports Outstanding 4 Incomplete Inquiries 4 Applications Withdrawn 4 Hearing Schedule 5 Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill 2006 5 Details of Land Claim Applications 6 Sea Closure Applications 7 Expenditure Statement 7 Addendum 7 APPENDIX 1 – PART I Chronological list of applications 8 Table 1 – Reports submitted 19 Table 2 – Claims withdrawn or otherwise disposed of 23 Table 3 – Incomplete inquiries 26 APPENDIX 1 – PART II Alphabetical list of applications 32 APPENDIX 2 Expenditure Statement 42 (v) 1 ABORIGINAL LAND RIGHTS (NORTHERN TERRITORY) ACT 1976 REPORT OF THE ABORIGINAL LAND COMMISSIONER FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2006 ANNUAL REPORT 1. Section 61(1) of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (the Act) provides that each Aboriginal Land Commissioner shall, as soon as practicable after 30 June in each year, prepare and furnish to the Minister a report of his operations during the year that ended on that date. This report has been prepared and is furnished to the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs in compliance with s 61(1). ABORIGINAL LAND COMMISSIONER 2. During the year under review the office of Aboriginal Land Commissioner has been held in an acting capacity by The Hon. Howard Olney AM QC who prior to 30 April 2003 had held the position on a substantive basis in his capacity as a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia. In May 2006 Mr Olney’s appointment as Acting Commissioner was renewed for a further 12 months. 3. Although the period of office of former Commissioner The Hon. Justice P.R.A. Gray expired on 24 October 1997, he is deemed to continue to hold the office of Commissioner for the purpose of completing the performance of a function under the Act commenced but not completed before the period of office expired (s 52(4)). Reference to such incomplete functions is made later in this report. FUNCTIONS OF THE COMMISSIONER 4. The functions of the Commissioner are set out in s 50 of the Act. The principal functions are those prescribed by s 50(1)(a) namely, that on an application being made to the Commissioner by or on behalf of Aboriginals claiming to have a traditional land claim to an area of land in the Northern Territory, being unalienated Crown land or alienated Crown land in which all estates and interests not held by the Crown are held by or on behalf of Aboriginals, the Commissioner is required to: (i) ascertain whether those Aboriginals or any other Aboriginals are the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land; and (ii) report his findings to the Minister and to the Administrator of the Northern Territory, and where he finds that there are Aboriginals who are the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, to make recommendations to the Minister for the granting of the land or any part of the land in accordance with s 11 and s 12. 2 5. In addition to the Commissioner’s primary function referred to above, s 50(1) identifies the following further functions, namely: • to inquire into the likely extent of traditional land claims by Aboriginals to alienated Crown land and to report to the Minister and to the Administrator of the Northern Territory, from time to time, the results of his inquiries; (s 50(1)(b)) • to establish and maintain a register of the traditional land claims referred to in paragraph (b); (s 50(1)(c)) • to advise the Minister in connection with any other matter relevant to the operation of the Act that is referred to the Commissioner by the Minister; (s 50(1)(d)) • to advise the Minister and the Administrator of the Northern Territory in connection with any other matter relating to land in the Northern Territory that is referred to the Commissioner by the Minister with the concurrence of the Administrator of the Northern Territory. (s 50(1)(e)) 6. Section 50(3) provides that in making a report in connection with a traditional land claim the Commissioner is required to comment on each of the following matters: (a) the number of Aboriginals with traditional attachments to the land claimed who would be advantaged, and the nature and extent of the advantage that would accrue to those Aboriginals, if the claim were acceded to either in whole or in part; (b) the detriment to persons or communities including other Aboriginal groups that might result if the claim were acceded to either in whole or in part; (c) the effect which acceding to the claim either in whole or in part would have on the existing or proposed patterns of land usage in the region; and (d) where the claim relates to alienated Crown land – the cost of acquiring the interests of persons (other than the Crown) in the land concerned. 7. The ability of the Commissioner to perform a function under s 50(1)(a) is restricted in a number of respects, notably by: a) s 50(2A) which prohibits the Commissioner from performing a function in respect of an application made after the expiration of 10 years after the commencement of the subsection. Subsection (2A) commenced on 5 June 1987 and is frequently referred to as “the sunset clause”. b) s 50(2B) which restricts the Commissioner’s capacity to perform a function under s 50(1)(a) in cases where an application relates 3 to land which has been the subject of an earlier report in which no recommendation has been made for the granting of title to that land. Applications to which subsection (2B) apply are frequently called “repeat claims”. c) s 50(2C) which prohibits the Commissioner from performing a function in respect of an application relating to land in which it appears that an estate or interest is held by or on behalf of Aboriginals unless the Aboriginals who hold that estate or interest have, or the body which holds that estate or interest on their behalf has consented in writing to the making of the application. d) s 50(2D) which prohibits the Commissioner from performing a function in respect of an application relating to land which prior to 1 March 1990 was reserved, dedicated or otherwise set aside under a law of the Northern Territory as a stock route or stock reserve other than a stock route or stock reserve that is, along each of its two longer boundaries, contiguous to land to which the application relates. Applications to which subsection (2D) applies are frequently referred to as “stock route claims”. 8. The Aboriginal Land Act (NT) confers upon the Aboriginal Land Commissioner the function of reporting to the Administrator of the Northern Territory in relation to sea closure applications referred by the Administrator to the Commissioner pursuant to section 12 of that Act. The Commissioner has not been required to perform any function in relation to a sea closure application in the year under review. 9. In addition to the obligation to furnish a report to the Minister each year the Commissioner is required to furnish to the Minister such additional reports as the Minister requires and may furnish such other reports as the Commissioner thinks fit (s 61(2)). ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS 10. The Office of the Aboriginal Land Commissioner is situated at th7 floor, 9–11 Cavenagh Street, Darwin. 11. The position of Executive Officer to the Office of the Aboriginal Land Commissioner is held by Mr Robert Bird who has served in that role since 1988. 12. Recording and transcription services have been supplied under contracts negotiated on a case by case basis. These arrangements have proved to be satisfactory. NEW APPLICATIONS 13. No new applications have been made since the sunset clause (s 50(2A)) took effect on 5 June 1997. 4 REPORTS OUTSTANDING 14. As at 30 June 2006 the only report outstanding in relation to a completed inquiry is in relation to the Alcoota Land Claim (No 146). The inquiry was originally commenced by the then Commissioner Justice Gray on 13 May 1996. The matter was delayed by a series of court proceedings which were finalized in 2004. The inquiry was ultimately concluded on 28 October 2004. Justice Gray is currently engaged in preparing his report. INCOMPLETE INQUIRIES 15. Two inquiries commenced by Justice Gray during his term in office as the Commissioner have not been concluded. In the case of the Loves Creek Land Claim (No 143) agreement has been reached between the claimants and the Northern Territory government that the Minister be requested to arrange for the land to be added to Schedule 1 of the Act with a view to it being granted to Land Trust.