Toobeah freehold land transfer to Indigenous corporation approved

A Queensland town has lost its war on a “secret” land transfer deal to an Aboriginal group, but the publican who led the battle is refusing to stand down.

Land titles records reveal the Toobeah site was transferred to the Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation late last month.

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A Queensland country publican has lost his one-man battle to stop his tiny town’s reserve being handed over to an Indigenous corporation as freehold land, but has vowed to continue the fight against Aboriginal Land Act transfers happening across the state alongside Pauline Hanson.

Michael Offerdahl, owner of the Toobeah Hotel near Goondiwindi, has been campaigning to prevent the town reserve from being given to the Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation.

The corporation sought the 210ha site under the Aboriginal Land Act which allows unallocated state land to be given to First Nations groups as “inalienable freehold”.

Toobeah Hotel publican Michael Offerdahl.

Mr Offerdahl railed against the transfer, which he claimed would result in 95 per cent of the town and $2m worth of land being given away and restrict access to locals.

This was hotly disputed by the Bigambul people, who said the reserve represented less than 1 per cent of the Toobeah district and was only meant to be used for travelling stock and camping. They also pledged to preserve a town water easement and rodeo grounds access on the reserve, on which it plans an “eco-cultural attraction”.

But land titles records reveal the site was transferred to the BNTAC late last month, after the state government revoked the Goondiwindi Regional Council’s 118-year-old trusteeship of the reserve.

Toobeah, near Goondiwindi.

A furious Mr Offerdahl, who had slammed Goondiwindi mayor and state LNP president Lawrence Springborg’s tacit support of the land transfer, said the situation was ‘pretty s***’.

“There’s only one way that they win this and that’s Springborg - the council did this to us,” he said.

“The state government, the council, they haven’t backed up one thing. They haven’t even proven that (council) trusteeship (of the reserve) can be taken away. The council gave it up. You can’t take away trusteeship without talking to the community about it.

“It’s going to lock my kids out of the creek. They’ll have to go into an individual access agreement with a (Aboriginal) corporation in Cherbourg. We’ve been told we’ll have to go and have a yarn to them about swimming in our own f***ing creek. It’s bulls***.”

Mr Offerdahl, who lodged an unsuccessful Ombudsman’s complaint about the council’s handling of the matter, also took aim at Southern Downs MP James Lister’s support for the land transfer which he said flew in the face of the LNP’s opposition to Queensland’s Path to Treaty.

Mr Springborg has previously defended the Toobeah land transfer, saying claims locals would be losing a large slice of their town were “completely false” and “complete misrepresentation”.

“There is not one square metre of people’s private freehold land, or land that can be lawfully accessed by the community, that can be impacted by this,” he has said.

“These (Aboriginal) land transfers have been happening in Queensland since 1991.”

Current proposed area to be transferred to the Bigambul Native Title Group as of January 24, 2024.

Mr Springborg said the Bigambul people had indicated they were “happy” to talk with Toobeah locals about giving them lawful access to the reserve which they currently did not have, “and there are members of the community who are keen to engage in that process”.

He said the council would also negotiate with the Bigambul and state government to purchase native title-designated land in Toobeah for the town’s future expansion.

Mr Springborg, a former LNP state leader and current party president, said the council had no control over the land transfer but he had told the government the process needed to be overhauled to provide better community engagement.

The Bigambul have taken a thinly-veiled swipe at Mr Offerdahl, saying he had known about the proposed land transfer for years.

Earlier this year, the state government revealed that Aboriginal corporations and groups were seeking freehold land transfers in 15 towns across Queensland, from Mt Isa and Maryborough through to the tiny Cloncurry Shire township of Duchess which has just 53 people.

The LNP’s Lawrence Springborg was called on to apologise. Picture: Glenn Campbell

The expressions of interest have sparked outcry in towns including Toobeah and Eurong and Happy Valley on K’gari (formerly Fraser Island).

The government also said that 6.7 million hectares of land, or 3.93 per cent of the state, had been transferred under the Aboriginal Land Act or Torres Strait Islander Land Act since 1991 - including 11 parcels of land transferred in 2023-24.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson slammed the land transfers as “taking place in secret” and vowed her party would seek to “get rid of the Aboriginal Land Act” if the party is re-elected next week.

“The government and the council headed by Lawrence Springborg should apologise for keeping the Toobeah community in the dark while they actively worked against the community’s interests to transfer the land to some faceless indigenous corporation more than 400 km away,” she said.

Originally published as Toobeah freehold land transfer to Indigenous corporation approved