Commonwealth, State, and Territory Parliaments of Australia have passed Aboriginal land rights legislation.
The Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966 [1] established the South Australian Aboriginal Lands Trust.
Victorian Aboriginal Lands Act 1970 [2]
As a result of the findings of the Woodward Aboriginal Land Rights Commission, a Royal Commission, the Fraser Government enacted the Aboriginal Land Rights Act [3] in 1976, after its drafting by the Whitlam Labor Government in 1975.
Four land councils were established under this law. It established the basis upon which Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory could, for the first time, claim rights to land based on traditional occupation. This Act was the first Australian law which allowed a claim of title if claimants could provide evidence of their traditional association with land.
The Queensland 1978 Local Government (Aboriginal Lands) Act [5] transferred land leases to the shires of Aurukun and Mornington.
The Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act 1981 of South Australia enabled land to be transferred to the Pitjantjatjara people, who had maintained a continuous connection with their land. However, the act provided no basis for claims by other groups.
The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Rights Act [6] provided land rights for Aboriginal persons, representative Aboriginal Land Councils, vested land in those Councils, provided for acquisition and management of land, and for the provision of community benefit schemes by or on behalf of those Councils.
The Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander Act, [7] brought in by Bob Katter, enabled the issuing of perpetual leases on existing Indigenous Lands in Queensland to Indigenous individuals.
The 1986 Commonwealth Aboriginal Land Grant (Jervis Bay Territory) [8] established the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council and grants land to the council.
The Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act 1987 (sometimes referred to as the Aboriginal Land Act 1987) [9] vests land to nominated Aboriginal Corporations.
The purpose of the Victorian Aboriginal Land (Northcote Land) Act [10] is to authorise the granting by the Crown of land at Northcote to the Aborigines Advancement League Incorporated. ABORIGINAL LAND (NORTHCOTE LAND) ACT 1989
The main purpose of the Victorian Aboriginal Lands Act 1991 [11] was to revoke the reservations of certain lands, and authorise the granting of that land for Aboriginal cultural and burial purposes.
These two acts, the Aboriginal Land Act [12] and the Torres Strait Islander Land Act, [13] superseded the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (Land Holding) Act 1985.
The purpose of the Victorian Aboriginal Land (Manatunga Land) Act [14] is to authorise the grant by the Crown of land at Robinvale to the Murray Valley Aboriginal Co-operative Limited and to extinguish a Crown lease and any other encumbrances existing over that land.
The Aboriginal Lands Act 1995 [15] created the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council and defined lands vested in the council.
The 2006 Commonwealth Aboriginal Land Rights Amendment Act [16] enables private housing on Indigenous lands.
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 provides the basis upon which Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory can claim rights to land based on traditional occupation. The Act was strongly based on the recommendations of Justice Woodward, who chaired the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission. The Labor government under Gough Whitlam first introduced a land rights Bill to Parliament; however, this lapsed upon the dismissal of the government in 1975. The Liberal government, led by Malcolm Fraser, reintroduced a different Bill in which details differed, and this was signed by the Governor-General of Australia on 16 December 1976.
The second part of the 1967 Australian referendum related to Aboriginal people. The 1967 Australian referendum, called by the Holt Government on 27 May 1967, consisted of two parts, with the first question relating to Aboriginal Australians. It asked for approval for two amendments to the Australian constitution based on this second question. The amendments related to counting Aboriginal people in the Australian census, and allowing the government to legislate separately for Aboriginal people. Technically this referendum question was a vote on the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) Act 1967, which became law on 10 August 1967 following the results of the referendum.
Aboriginal Australians is a western term for the people who are from the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands.
Larissa Yasmin Behrendt is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman, an Aboriginal Australian legal academic and writer. She is currently a Professor of Indigenous Research and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney.
Framlingham is a rural township located by the Hopkins River in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) north-east of the coastal city of Warrnambool. In the 2016 census, the township had a population of 158.
Indigenous Australian self-determination, also known as Aboriginal self-determination, is the power relating to self-governance by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. It is the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to determine their own political status and pursue their own economic, social and cultural interests. Self-determination asserts that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should direct and implement Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy formulation and provision of services. Self-determination encompasses both Aboriginal land rights and self-governance.
The Dhauwurd Wurrung, also known as the Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Their land includes much of the Budj Bim heritage areas.
The Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act 1981 grants certain land and other rights to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara in South Australia. It began its life as the Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act and commenced operation on 2 October 1981. Its long name title is "An Act to provide for the vesting of title to certain lands in the people known as Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara; and for other purposes". The Act has since had several amendments, the latest in 2017.
Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage to groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They include the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia. The term Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, or the person's specific cultural group, is often preferred, though the terms First Nations of Australia, First Peoples of Australia and First Australians are also increasingly common.
An Australian Aboriginal sacred site is a place deemed significant and meaningful by Aboriginal Australians based on their beliefs. It may include any feature in the landscape, and in coastal areas, these may lie underwater. The site's status is derived from an association with some aspect of social and cultural tradition, which is related to ancestral beings, collectively known as Dreamtime, who created both physical and social aspects of the world. The site may have its access restricted based on gender, clan or other Aboriginal grouping, or other factors.
Australian heritage laws exist at the National (Commonwealth) level, and at each of Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia State and Territory levels. Generally there are separate laws governing Aboriginal cultural heritage and sacred sites, and historical heritage. State laws also allow heritage to be protected through local government regulations, such as planning schemes, as well.
An Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) is a class of protected area used in Australia; each is formed by agreement with Indigenous Australians, and declared by Indigenous Australians. Each is formally recognised by the Australian Government as being part of its National Reserve System, with 75 IPAs comprising more than 44% of the national reserve land, occupying about 67,000,000 hectares as of April 2020.
Land councils, also known as Aboriginal land councils, or land and sea councils, are Australian community organisations, generally organised by region, that are commonly formed to represent the Indigenous Australians who occupied their particular region before the arrival of European settlers. They have historically advocated for recognition of traditional land rights, and also for the rights of Indigenous people in other areas such as equal wages and adequate housing.
Aboriginal land rights in Australia are return of lands to Aboriginal Australians by the Commonwealth, state or territory governments of Australia based on recognition of dispossession. Different types of land rights laws exist in Australia, allowing for the renewed ownership of land to Aboriginals [Aboriginal Australians] under various conditions. Land rights schemes are in place in the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. The land titles may recognise traditional interest in the land and protect those interests by giving Aboriginal people legal ownership of that land. Plus:
An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-run settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th century to the 1960s to keep Aboriginal people separate from the white Australian population, for various reasons perceived by the government of the day. The Aboriginal reserve laws gave governments much power over all aspects of Aboriginal people’s lives.
The Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women's Council is a community based community organisation formed in 1980 delivering services to the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara women in the central desert region of Australia across the borders of the Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia with its headquarters in Alice Springs. It provides a range of community, family, research and advocacy services.
Lake Tyers Mission, also known as Bung Yarnda, was an Aboriginal mission established in 1863 on the shore of Lake Tyers in Victoria‘s Gippsland, region as a centralised location for Aboriginal people from around Victoria.
Budj Bim heritage areas include the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape, which was added to the National Heritage List on 20 July 2004, and the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 6 July 2019. Within the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, there are three Indigenous Protected Areas: the Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area, Kurtonitj Indigenous Protected Area (2009) and the Lake Condah Indigenous Protected Area (2010).
Lake Condah Mission, also known as Condah Mission, was established in 1867 as a Church of England mission, approximately 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from Lake Condah, which was traditionally known as Tae Rak, and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) to 25 kilometres (16 mi) south-east of the small town of Condah. The site of the mission, on 2,000 acres (810 ha) north of Darlot Creek, was formally reserved in 1869, and the Mission continued operations until the reserve was finally revoked in 1951, with most of the land handed over to the Soldiers Settlement Scheme to provide land for white veterans of World War II.
