Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council takes Indigenous title claim row to Federal Court

An Aboriginal group is taking its massive native title claim to court, claiming another group has been recognised as representatives of the area’s Indigenous people.

Aboriginal elder Dr Carolyn Briggs has accused the state government of trying to deny the Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council’s native title claims. Picture: Valeriu Campan

A massive native title claim involving large parts of Melbourne and Gippsland is to go ahead in the Federal Court.

But the Indigenous group behind it says that state government Aboriginal bodies are trying to deny its claim by recognising another group as the rightful representative of the area’s Aboriginal people.

Covering about 13,077sq km, the claim area extends from Melton to Wilsons Promontory including 22 metro council areas ranging from Wyndham in the west, to Greater Dandenong in the southeast.

The Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council took the claim to the Federal Court after the Native Title Registrar refused to register it.

Boonwurrung elder Dr Carolyn Briggs accused state officials of trying to “hamper and sabotage our claim by bankrupting our community by appointing an interstate group as a Recognised Aboriginal Party (RAP) over our country”.

“By lodging this claim in the Federal Court, we can be assured that the claim will be determined on the facts rather than the prejudices of particular interest groups and public servant fiefdoms,” she said.

Dr Briggs said the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council — a state body comprising 11 traditional owner representatives appointed by the government — had “ridiculously” appointed a group called the Bunorong Land Council as representative of the Boonwurrung people.

The native land claim includes Wilsons Promontory in Gippsland. Picture: iStock

“No one in this state has ever heard of them, they originate from Tasmania and Western Australia … a staggering 90 per cent of their members have never been to Melbourne,” she said.

Bunorong Land Council chief executive Dan Turnbull is a member of the Aboriginal Heritage Council.

In July, the heritage council formalised the boundary in Melbourne between the Bunorong Land Council and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation after the parties spent years negotiating but couldn’t agree on the issue.

On the claim that the Bunorong Land Council had mostly interstate members, the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council said it was “important to acknowledge that the devastating effects of dispossession of Aboriginal peoples in Victoria has led to traditional owners being forced off Country”.

“In this instance, in its decision making, council will not further operate to the detriment of the many traditional owners who do not live on Country,” the council’s statement said.

In regard to Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council’s claim to be the rightful representative of its people, the council pointed to a 2017 Supreme Court decision which upheld the council’s move to give RAP status to Bunorong Land Council.