Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976

Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976
Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act
Enacted by	Parliament of Australia
Date signed	16 December 1976
Amendments
Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill 2006

In Australian history, the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act established the basis upon which Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory could 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 Woodward Royal Commission').^[1] The Whitlam government first introduced a Bill to Parliament; however, this lapsed upon the dismissal of the government in 1975. The conservative government, led by Malcolm Fraser, reintroduced a Bill, though not of the same content, and this was signed by the Governor-General of Australia on 16 December 1976.

The Act, the first of the Aboriginal Land Rights Acts, and was significant in that it allowed a claim of title if claimants could provide evidence of their traditional association with land.

There are four land councils established under the Act:

• Central Land Council is in the southern half of the Northern Territory
• Northern Land Council covering the Top End
• Tiwi Land Council covering Bathurst and Melville Islands north of Darwin
• Anindilyakawa Land Council covering Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

In August 2006, the Federal Government amended the Act. The "Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill 2006" added several clauses which intend to promote economic development in remote townships. Amongst these, low interest loans were subsidised to promote private home ownership. The Amendment does away with communal ownership of certain parcels of lands previously vested as parts of inalienable Aboriginal Land Trusts.

The Amendment also prescribed for the 'fast-tracking' of mining negotiations between corporations and Indigenous communities, minimising the role of the large land councils on behalf of land owning groups.

References

1. ^ http://www.clc.org.au/Ourland/land_rights_act/Land_rights_act.html

External links

• Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth) background
• ActNow summary of the 2006 Amendment - Further details of the 2006 Amendment