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The Land Rights Act

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About the Act

When European people came to Australia they did not recognise Aboriginal law and imposed their own law.

After many years of struggle Aboriginal law and land rights were finally recognised in Australian law in the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. This Act recognises our rights to land and sets up processes to win back our land through Land Councils, and manage its resources.

Handback of Urapunga Station in 2002

Importantly, the Act is the first attempt by an Australian government to legally recognise the Aboriginal system of land ownership and put into law the concept of inalienable freehold title. This has allowed Aboriginal people to retain and in some cases re-establish their cultural identity, while at the same time contributing to the peaceful and responsible development of the Northern Territory.

Handback of Bauhinia Downs Station in 1999

The Land Rights Act sets down detailed procedures for:

	the negotiation of mining agreements on Aboriginal land and the application of laws for mining on Aboriginal land;
	funding of Land Councils through the Aboriginal Benefits Account (previously Aboriginal Benefits Reserve);
	a number of minor but important provisions, such as roads and entry onto Aboriginal land, protection of sacred sites and protection of traditional rights over land; and
	the application of NT laws and complementary NT legislation.

The Whitlam Government introduced legislation based substantially on Woodward's recommendations. The Bill was before the Parliament when the Government was dismissed in the constitutional crisis of November 1975.

Broken Promises
Despite election campaign promises from the Liberal-Country Party coalition that the Bill would be passed without amendment, the new Government of Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser buckled to pressure from mining and pastoral industry groups and conservative politicians in the Northern Territory. A new bill was drafted from which many of the important provisions of the Labor Party Bill were absent.

Salvage Job
A national campaign by the newly-created Land Councils salvaged a number of key elements, but the final Bill removed needs-based claims and gave the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly responsibility for complementary legislation covering sacred site protection, sea closures and permits for access to Aboriginal land.

Nonetheless, it was the recommendations of Mr Justice Woodward which formed the basis of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act which passed both houses of the Federal Parliament with historic bipartisan support in December 1976. It came into force on 26 January 1977, one-and-a-half years before the Northern Territory was granted self-government.