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Papers and reviews

The project site is open to submissions of new work, reviews and commentary on environment protection and indigenous rights. Submissions to the Coordinator... anthony.esposito@wilderness.org.au

Project papers

A series of articles written by the project coordinator, looking at environment and indigenous rights issues, and current events and developments on the native title front.

Indigenous interests in Wild Rivers in Queensland

The Queensaland Government has proposed to protect Wild Rivers through a new piece of legislation. A new Wild Rivers Act offers a decisive opportunity to consider Indigenous peoples' interests in the conservation of land and waters in Queensland. It is a chance to prevent the impacts that have devastated so many of Australia's once great rivers, while reflecting the inter-relationship between indigenous environmental, spiritual and cultural values.…February 2005 - read more...

Native title and rural leasehold lands in Queensland

The High Court's judgement in the Wik Peoples v the State of Queensland and the Howard Government's 1998 amendments to the Native Title Act 1993 are the main defining elements in the interplay between native title and rural leasehold tenures. Many issues affecting policy meet in this interplay: sovereign power, racial discrimination, traditional ownership, land title, use and access rights, pastoral productivity and primary production, natural resource management, and cultural heritage and environment protection.…July 2002 - read more...

Issues of cultural and environmental integrity

The effect of native title and indigenous rights and interests in protected areas is one that raises significant tenure and management considerations. This is for both existing and future protected areas. Non-government environment organisations in Queensland, a political driving force in the creation and management of protected areas, have been playing a pro-active role in defining the full scope of issues associated with native title and discussing new models for a protected area estate.…August 2001 - read more...

A step into the future for indigenous-environment alliances in Queensland

There is a strong correlation between the dispossession of indigenous traditional owners and environmental destruction. This is apparent when maps of land claimable under native title and 'wilderness' inventory maps are overlayed. Where extinguishment of native title is complete so is the loss of nearly all 'wilderness quality' or 'values'. Where there are still large areas of wilderness, so are there often unbroken, though not undamaged, indigenous traditional owner connections.…February 2001 - read more...

The Bush Tucker Ruling

In 1994, Murrandoo Yanner, a member of the Gunnamulla clan of the Gangalidda tribe of Aboriginal Australians, speared two juvenile estuarine crocodiles on country in the Gulf of Carpentaria. These were then shared with other members of his clan for food. For this he was charged with hunting without a permit under the Queensland Fauna Act. The action ricocheted through the courts until, in October this year, the High Court of Australia set aside the prosecution and confirmed the native title right of Aboriginal traditional owners to hunt wild animals.…April 2000 - read more...

Indigenous Rights and Environment Protection

It seems to have been forgotten in the contemporary debate about indigenous rights in this country that "native title" is a concept that predates the establishment of the first British Colony on Australian soil. At the time that the British crown asserted ‘radical title’ to the lands of the continent of Australia, there was already recognition and practices in common law as to what constituted ‘possession’ and in international law with respect to the annexation of ‘native’ territories by colonial powers.…November 1999 - read more...

Parks not a battle ground for native title

There are currently two related Queensland Government processes that have wide ranging implications for the future of protected areas, including National Parks. One is the review of protected areas in relation to native title rights, and the other a master planning process in relation to the framework for the management of national parks. …September 1999 - read more...

Caring for country

The intersection of native title and protected areas is a matter of fundamental importance to environment groups who have a strong interest in policy and legislative options and subsequent changes to the management of protected areas.…June 1999 - read more...

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