Noongar-Boodja Land Trust settlement - W.A.

Qldcamper - Disposing of rubbish is the white mans problem, didn't you know?

The system of regularly funding Keep Australia Beautiful, to issue contracts to local people for regular roadside cleanups, worked well, until the Govt decided they couldn't afford it.
Now the KAB funding is back to $600,000 nationally, over 3 years, just to fund one cleanup day a year.

But they can find $1.3B for an Aboriginal Land Settlement? The mind boggles at the Govts priorities.
The KAB roadside cleanups were good value, they paid for the employment of local teams, such as shearing teams in their off-season, and the difference those teams made, was tremendous.

They cleaned the roadsides to around 10M back from the shoulder, from memory, and they did an excellent job.
Nowadays, we have gone back 30 years, to crap laying everywhere by the roadsides, and no-one caring about it, despite all the regulations and penalties against littering.

Cheers, Ron.

Phil, I'm afraid this land settlement deal may mean a lot of 4WD trails, camping areas, and possibly even Park and Reserves areas, will become "off-limits" to four-wheel drivers and campers as they are now needed for "cultural reasons" - or that new charges will now be levied by the new Aboriginal Corporations, to access their land, or to "fund", "necessary", Aboriginal Rangers.

I wasn't aware until I applied for the parcel of Unallocated Crown Land mentioned in my original post, that even if my application had been considered (it hasn't, it's just been pigeonholed, for God knows how long) - I would need to pay $500 (under the current Native Title law) to a local Aboriginal group, to have a "cultural inspection" done, to determine if the land was sacred, or needed for other cultural reasons.

There was no definition of who this $500 was to be paid to exactly, and no definition of how sacred or culturally-needed land was determined.

To make this process an even bigger joke, the parcel of land had been completely cleared many years ago, a perimeter cyclone fence erected, water connected, and the area covered in road base, and then used by some Govt Dept (possibly Main Roads).

Cheers, Ron.

Mick, I haven't elucidated what the Noongar-Boodjar Land Settlement claim means to access, because I simply don't know, and it's obvious a lot of other people in much more important positions than me, don't know either - because they are still "working out the fine details".

For me personally, at this point, it means I cannot apply for any block of Unallocated Crown Land, in the SW of W.A.
It means my current application has been shelved, and I have no way of knowing when my land acquisition plans can proceed. I think that's pretty poor.
I have been given future dates for the finalisation of the Land Settlement claim, that keep getting pushed back, and pushed back.

As you correctly state, this deal was announced in 2015, and it's still not settled. It was reportedly settled in 2015, then two aggrieved Aboriginal claimants blocked it with a legal challenge, and the original agreement was torn up.
Even now, no-one can say with any certainty, when the claim will be finalised, and we all know where we stand, and how the deal will affect us individually.

The other feature of this Land Settlement deal is a general lack of transparency.
The deal is being carried out at senior public servant and lawyer levels, with elders of tribal groups.

What we all can also guess at, is that the eventual finalisation of this deal, will only add another layer of bureaucracy and costs, on our collective heads.
Seven new sizeable Aboriginal corporations are being created, and have to be funded.

That means a very substantial number of employees of those corporations, all setting new rules and regulations regarding Indigenous requirements, in addition to current rules and regulations.

We have a sad record relating to past Aboriginal Corporations - a record of constant mismanagement, waste, corruption, and straight-out fraud and theft.

Not to mention the mismanagement of lands under their control (do you recall the vast amount of cattle deaths recently on Aboriginal stations in the North of W.A.? I didn't see anyone from the RSPCA get involved in charges of animal cruelty in those cases).

These seven new corporations are being funded by the taxpayer to the tune of at least somewhere around $1.3B (which figure will no doubt blow out) - but at the end of the 12 year Govt funding period, what then?

It will no doubt result in "additional charges" on the public, by these seven Aboriginal corporations to fund and justify their existence, and their level of employees.

Then there's the inability of the current State Govt to explain precisely what the Noongar-Boodjar Land Settlement claim will mean to industry, to farmers, to the general public, to the tourism industry, or to overall land management in W.A.

It's entirely likely there will be land that will be mismanaged under this new Settlement deal, exactly as has happened in the past when Aboriginal Corporations have taken control of W.A. land.

I am just unsettled, and feel left in the dark, about this entire Land Settlement process, and its murky end result, due to a lack of consultation with, and lack of input from, the general public of W.A., rather than the seemingly exclusive club, that is formulating this Land Settlement deal.

Cheers, Ron.

I'm pretty aware of the past follies of misguided government intervention, particularly on the demise of Balgo and surrounds when taken from the administration of those 'terrible, paternalistic' Palottine monks (Labor's words, not mine). What happened at Ngulpi and Balgo should forever be a blight on Labor's copy book and a case of how not to handle a LR claim however, hopefully we've progressed from there and I have faith that common sense and logic may overcome collective western guilt.....maybe!

I live in hope :-)

Mick

The guilty ones are long dead, it’s time to live in harmony as Australians.

Well said, Shaker.