The Australian newspaper of thursday 2 May carries a story on page
5 entitled 'Aborigines win historic site 25 years after claim.'
The story reports, 'The historic venue of the Newcastle Waters
cattle station striker's camp in the Northern Territory yesterday
passed into Aboriginal hands, 25 years after Aborigines first
claimed it.'
'The station, owned in more recent years by the Sydney businessman
Mr Kerry Packer ... became the focal point of union activity in
the 1960s when station hands walked off the property, seeking
better living conditions and higher wages.'
'The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Mr Tichner, handed title to
214ha of the Newcastle Waters public reserve, adjacent to the
station proper, to members of the marlinja Aboriginal Land Trust
as part of an agreement between the federal and Northern Territory
governments covering old stock routes.'
'Traditional owners of the Ammaroo stock route and reserve ...
have also received two parcels of land under the agreement, signed
by Mr Hawke, and the territory's Chief Minister, Mr Perron, in
1989.'
'...Mr Tichner said..."The success of these cases can send a
strong message to the rest of Australia about the possibility of
better relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.'
'Mr Tichner said the transfer of the Newcastle Waters reserve
showed Aboriginal land aspirations need not "be the subject of
confrontation and controversy.'
Abridged story ends.
Comment.
It is hardly surprising that the Newcastle Waters outcome can be
held up as a non-threatening resolution of Aboriginal land
aspirations. The First People have received title to 214ha paddock
of vacant Crown land which will not support life, while a major
part of their living country reamins 'alienated' as a massive
partoral lease of over 10,000 sq km to one of Australia's richest
men.
The resources of the country remain to be brokeraged through the
Anglo-Australian power structure while the First People continue
to be beggared.
Historic? For an analysis of the 1989 agreement between the
Commonwealth and Northern Territory government see response 1 to
this item. It was written in 1989.