Yamba Surf Club forced to pay $2000 to Yaegl Traditional Owners to access beach

A small town surf club was forced by an Indigenous corporation to pay $2000 for the right to stage surf events on a public beach so the group could fund its “welcome to country” ceremonies.

Yamba Surf Life Saving Club members at a beach swim in 2023. Photo: Facebook.

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An Aboriginal corporation has demanded a battling small town surf club pay $2000 for the right to stage surf carnivals and a fundraising ocean swim on a public beach.

Yamba Surf Club, on the NSW Far North Coast, was asked by the Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation to pay a $500 “fee for service” for each of four events - including a nippers carnival - over the 2024-25 lifesaving season.

The corporation said the payment was to conduct ‘welcome to country’ ceremonies at the events.

The demand has outraged some surf club members, with one slamming it as “un-Australian”.

But the corporation has backflipped on the demand after being contacted by the Sunday Mail, saying there had been a “misunderstanding” and the welcome to country fee should have been levied on the local council or state government and not the surf club.

It comes after the club wrote to the corporation recently making a formal request to use Main Beach at Yamba for the surf carnivals and ocean swim.

The Yaegl in 2017 became the first Indigenous people in NSW to be granted native title over the ocean. Their claim involved more than 90km of coastline between Woody Head and Wooli and extended 200m out to sea.

Yamba Surf Lifesaving Club members.

The claim was not meant to impact public access to beaches or commercial fishing.

In a letter to the corporation, surf club officials said they understood the importance of respecting native title rights “and are committed to ensuring that our activities comply with all relevant regulations and agreements”.

The club said the annual Yamba Ocean Swim in January was the only fundraising event it held on the beach but also sought formal permission to hold a surf boat carnival last weekend, a nippers carnival next weekend and a masters carnival in February.

A Yaegl official wrote back to say the events were endorsed but a $500 “fee for service payment” was required to be paid “directly to the Corporation who will then engage a Yaegl Native Title Holder to administer a Welcome to Country”.

“The Corporation will send through an invoice for payment once the event has occurred and as we are a non for profit (sic) organisation we would appreciate a prompt turnaround time for payment to be administered,” the letter said.

“This will support all visitors and participants to these fundraising events (to) retain an understanding of the importance of respecting Yaegl people’s Native Title Rights and Interests on Land and Sea and Waterways when competing (on) or visiting our beautiful Yaegl Country.”

The claim for payment was cited as being made under a section of the Native Title Act which allows Aboriginal corporations to charge a fee for negotiating agreements.

According to the National Association for the Visual Arts, the standard fee for welcome to country ceremonies ranges from $300 to $750.

One of the Yamba SLSC members said there was outrage among the club. Photo: Facebook.

But one upset Yamba surf club member said he did not believe the Native Title Act stipulated payments for welcome to country ceremonies and said lifesavers should not be charged to use their own beach.

“A lot of members are outraged by it,” he said.

“It’s pretty un-Australian to charge anyone to use the beach, let alone volunteer surf lifesavers wanting to compete and raise funds for their club. This isn’t the thin edge of the wedge, it’s the thick end.

“Stopping people from climbing Uluru and Mt Warning is one thing but charging them to use the beach is taking it to another level.”

Another Yamba lifesaver said surf clubs up and down the NSW coast were struggling financially already, with membership “dying”.

He said Yamba Surf Club’s only fundraising events were the ocean swim and a trivia night and crab race, with sponsors helping prop up the club.

“I’m not sure they’d be too happy about seeing their sponsorship dollars go to an Aboriginal corporation,” he said.

Yaegl Traditional Owners Corporation general manager Bill Walker said there had been a “misunderstanding” and the notification to hold the lifesaving events should have come from either the state government or local council, not the surf club.

“Everything that we’ve tried to do, there’s a stuff-up and it’s not our fault,” he said.

“It’s a confusing process. We get a lot of negative s**t from people who don’t understand the welcome to country. We don’t do it as a living, we do it as a cultural activity with a fee for service that brings in income just like any other organisation.”

Mr Walker said the Yaegl had non-exclusive native title rights over the beach at Yamba and “we don’t shut anything down or anything off”.

“As a corporation, we’ve got to change our attitude towards who we charge a fee for service,” he said.

“If it’s a government agency that does it, we do charge because it’s a legitimate act. But we’re not going to charge the surf life saving club.

“As far as I’m concerned they can still do their activities and we will not be charging them a fee for service, because the right people didn’t come to us in the first place. It should have been the state or local government.”

In a statement, surf club president Joe Dougherty said: “Yamba SLSC is dealing with a request from Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation and won’t be commenting any further out of respect for the local Indigenous community, some of whom are valued volunteer members of our Club.”