WA’s Bardi Jawi people try to free ­traditional lands from state Aboriginal Lands Trust

Communities in WA want the Albanese government to unravel rules that prevent investment they say would create jobs for their young people.

Philip Bibado ­McCarthy, front, with Kevin George, chairman of the Bardi Jawi Aboriginal Corporation, at Ardyaloon. Picture: Theo Fakos

Aboriginal communities north of Broome have asked the Albanese government to help them unravel outdated land rules that prevent them from owning their own homes and which they say continue to block them from inviting investors onto their lands for tourism joint ventures that would create jobs for their young people.

The Bardi Jawi people of the Dampier Peninsula have been trying since 2010 to free their ­traditional lands from the state Aboriginal Lands Trust that was established 50 years ago when church missions closed.

The trust covers 8 per cent of Western Australia and locks 142 remote Aboriginal communities into highly restrictive land tenure arrangements. For example, everyone who lives on trust land is a renter for life.

While successive WA government have successfully removed parcels of land from the trust for the benefit of traditional owner groups, the process is slow and complicated. So far the community that is closest to extracting ­itself from the trust is Bidyadanga south of Broome. However, that process began in 2017 and has cost millions of dollars.

Plans for a home ownership scheme on the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory began in 2007 and 10 years later the first homeowners - – Stanley Tipiloura and Viviana Wanambi – moved into a three-bedroom home and began paying their mortgage.

However, home ownership schemes have not followed in other remote Indigenous communities in the Territory. In ­remote homelands and town camps, houses are government-owned and on leases that are ­controlled mostly by the federal government.

On the headland north of Broome in Western Australia’s far north Kimberley Region, Ardyaloon resident Philip Bibado ­McCarthy says he has rented his state government house for 30 years and “I could have paid it off by now”.

The 55-year-old Education Department worker had contemplated moving to Perth for a few years to help his oldest daughter settle into high school there but eventually realised that if he did that, the family would lose his rental property at Ardyaloon.

“I would have to go to the back of the line and that line is 20 years long because there aren’t enough houses,” he said.

“It would mean my whole family would not be able to live here again, in our own community.”

The Bardi Jawi people say they have given up on their talks with the state government for control of Aboriginal Lands Trust property on the Dampier Peninsula. They no longer believe the Cook government can or will help them fast enough. Instead, they have decided to break free from the trust themselves. They have asked the federal government to help them using a grants scheme that has so far been reserved for business start-ups and for upgrading the campus at the University of Tasmania.

The Bardi Jawi people want $5m from the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Scheme. Their neighbours, the non-Aboriginal owned Cygnet Bay pearl farm, supports their grant application.

Bardi Jawi Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Gareth Ogilvie said: “This is an issue about giving the Bardi and Jawi people greater control over their traditional lands, and empowering them to make decisions about land use and economic development to create a better future for their children.

“It is about acknowledging historical injustices, promoting equality, and ensuring that Aboriginal communities have the ­opportunity to thrive on their own terms.”