With two popular local sites to be imminently returned to Indigenous ownership, North Shore Living explores the chasm between public expectations of open space and Indigenous rights to reclaim and make use of their land.
“The land is my mother, so when it is taken from us, we feel hurt because we belong to the land,” says senior Yolngu man of the Dhurilli clan, Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra, of the inimitable Indigenous connection to Australia. This is quite at odds with colonisation’s ‘nobody’s land.’
Today, 40 years on from the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (ALRA), it’s that ‘unity between humans and earth that continues to unsettle white Australia,’ says the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. While 40 per cent of all Australian land now has a recognised native title interest in it, there remains a mountain to climb in terms of land rights progress and perception.
Great strides were made with the ALRA, launched to offer freehold rights over certain unoccupied Crown Lands as ‘recompense for loss of land plus mining royalties,’ explains Nathan Moran, CEO of the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council (MLALC). Now, the Land Council is the largest private landowner in the Hornsby and Northern Beaches local government areas. Across NSW, over 53,000 land claims have been lodged since the ALRA’s debut, with the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) ‘committed to processing claims as quickly as possible.’
Image credit: MLALC Facebook Nathan Moran, CEO of the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council, says it needs to be understood that the land is being handed over as recompense.
However, despite 2020-21 marking the highest number of claims ever processed – at 271 – Indigenous communities feel that government has ‘failed to deliver.’
“A lack of strategy and true partnerships sees us in this place,” says Danny Chapman, NSW Aboriginal Land Council Chairperson, of the teetering pile of 38,000 unresolved land claims – 1.12 million hectares – due to take more than two decades to resolve.
“Nothing is more important to a bright future than resolving these claims. We can’t do it without land,” he adds.
Split opinion over how these public spaces should be used is further slowing the pace.
The decade-long delay to grant a 2013 claim made against Naremburn’s Talus Street Reserve and its eight tennis courts and clubhouse – used by the Northern Suburbs Tennis Association since 1978 – has seen tensions rise on both sides of the net. The MLALC’s ability to ‘assess the site for any remaining cultural heritage to determine how it could be managed in the future,’ has been lost. While Terry Stewart, Tennis Association president, says the ‘lack of security’ following the lengthy claim and the body’s long-term lease expiration has made it impossible to maintain the ‘in need of repair’ courts.
“The baseline on the courts is that they will ‘continue to be available until the transition is completed.” Tanya Taylor, Willoughby Council Mayor
The transfer will see access to bush tracks close to Flat Rock Creek’s headwater remain as ‘essential public purpose,’ and will ‘embed significant Indigenous heritage and support reconciliation,’ says Tanya Taylor, Willoughby Council Mayor. The baseline on the courts is that they will ‘continue to be available until the transition is completed.’
Waverton Park’s former Bowling Club is also to be returned to Indigenous ownership after North Sydney Council’s decisions regarding future usage were found ‘not to be sufficiently progressed.’
The ‘gobsmackingly beautiful’ Waverton Bowling Club is the first successful land claim in the North Sydney LGA.
Marking the first successful land claim in North Sydney, the ‘gobsmackingly beautiful’ site will be ‘assessed and the public consulted as to potential future uses,’ says the MLALC. Controversy over past sales of land to developers – plus ongoing noise over plans to construct 450 new homes at Belrose’s Lizard Rock – has meant the Land Council now aims to either ‘develop claimed land itself or as part of a joint- venture with a development partner.’
The future faces of these sites remain blurred for now, with MLALC’s Mr Moran telling North Shore Living that “plans will be developed under the ALRA and any activities at the site will comply with required legislation.” Upon transfer of titles, a “handover will be undertaken that may include existing leases or licences,” he adds.
The transfer of land at Talus Street Reserve in Naremburn to the MLALC is being finalised.
North Sydney Council is pushing for State Government to ‘acquire the Waverton land for public recreation, subject to fair and just compensation being paid,’ but Mr Moran says it must be understood that ‘we are getting back land for recompense and we need to use that land to create a commodity to fund ourselves.’
“Clearly, the days of government telling Indigenous communities we know what’s best for them, are long gone,” says Ben Franklin, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs. Moving forwards, Indigenous communities must have a ‘genuine say in policies,’ he adds, while the 2022-24 Closing the Gap pledge – that 15 per cent of land/sea mass be Indigenous-owned by 2030 – plus the $30 million Community and Place Grants, will help build economic independence and a ‘future equal to all Australians.’
It is these aims, say Indigenous leaders, coupled with the inherent connection to the land, that the ‘continued cultural, economic and social survival of Australia’s First Peoples, depends on.’
By Catherine Lewis