$1.3bn land rights deal with Noongar people to proceed

The biggest land rights deal in Australian history will go ahead after an appeal from a dissident group of Noongar people was knocked out.

Noongar people celebrate their native title win outside Parliament House in Perth in 2006.

The biggest land rights deal in Australian history will proceed after the Federal Court of Australia on Thursday knocked out a last-minute appeal from a dissident group of Noongar people from the southwest of Western Australia.

It has been four years since the Noongar people voted for the $1.3 billion land-and-cash package to benefit 30,000 Aboriginal people.

The deal, struck by former Liberal premier Colin Barnett, had bipartisan support but was stalled in court by some of the minority who voted “no” to the South West Native Title Settlement in 2015.

Described by Western Australia’s indigenous affairs minister Ben Wyatt as akin to a treaty, the deal was put to the Noongar people at six regional meetings.

West Australian Aboriginal Affairs minister Ben Wyatt with Jeanice Krakouer, chair of the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council. Picture: Colin Murty

It was considered a fait accompli until a Federal Court decision about a separate and smaller land deal in the Northern Territory in May, which handed opponents of the Noongar settlement a fresh argument that reopened their case. The Cox Peninsula deal outside Darwin was thrown out by the court on May 20 because it was certified in 2017 by the Northern Land Council’s then chief executive, Joe Morrison, rather than by a full board. The Noongar deal was also signed by an employee of a land council, the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council’s then chief executive Glenn Kelly, so opponents of the $1.3bn deal rushed back to court.

The South West Land Deal was welcomed by business and government because it settled Native Title over the most populated third of the state where mining, farming and developers had been negotiating with traditional owners deal by deal.

In 2006, the Federal Court found the Noongar people held native title rights to occupy, use and enjoy lands and waters; it was hailed as the first decision recognising native title over a capital city, but it was overturned by the Full Federal Court two years later.

That is when the Barnett government and South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council agreed to negotiate. In July 2013, the government released the terms of its settlement offer and these were approved by the Noongar people at a series of authorisation meetings between January and March 2015.

Up to 320,000ha of southwest land will be transferred to the Noongar Boodja Trust for development and cultural purposes. The WA government will also contribute $50 million annually for 12 years to the Noongar Boodja Trust, and $10m annually for 12 years to the Noongar Regional Corporations.

Noongar people will jointly run the state’s national parks.