Gia, Ngaro peoples launch Native Title claim covering Airlie Beach, Whitsunday Islands

A Native Title claim is being made in waters off Queensland, sparking warnings to commercial fishermen from the state’s Seafood Industry Association. SEE THE DETAILS

A Native Title claim has been made on behalf of the Gia and Ngaro Peoples.

• Q&A: What is native title?

A Native Title claim being made in the Whitsundays has sparked warnings from the Queensland Seafood Industry Association for commercial fishermen.

The Gia and Ngaro Peoples’ application covers Airlie Beach, Hamilton Island, the surrounding Whitsunday Islands, and roughly 40km inland near the lands of the Juru, Birriah and Yuwibara People.

Because the claim includes a swath of the seas off the shore, the Queensland Seafood Industry Association is pushing commercial fishermen in the area to become a respondent party to the application in order to protect fishing rights.

Executive officer David Bobbermen said Native Title claims certainly weren’t new to the industry, and fishermen had no reason to be concerned.

“Theoretically, if existing fishermen do not lodge an interest they may be excluded from being able to access fish into the future,” he said, adding it had never happened before.

“There has been no indication that those Native Title holders are preventing commercial fishing and charter fishing and the fishing industry generally has a good working relationship with traditional owners.

“If you really fish the area and you’ve got evidence that you fish the area, you have basically the right to become a party to the claim, which then means that because you fish the area before the Native Title was proclaimed, that right continues.”

Ngaro rock art is one of the oldest Indigenous sites on Australia’s east coast. Picture: Phill Gordon

Mr Bobbermen said anyone having issues filling out the required forms should either talk to legal representation or members could get in touch with him.

“The only outcome that I’d like to see is that as many fishermen, commercial and charter, who fish the area, make sure they fill out that Form 5,” he said.

“Don’t be complacent just because it hasn’t caused any problems anywhere else to date, that’s not the reason to be complacent. In fact, you know, it’s the very reason to be active.”

The Ngaro people have been holding cultural tours in the Whitsundays for years. Picture: Phill Gordon

The Gia and Ngaro people have resided in the Whitsunday region for thousands of years and have strong connection to the land and sea with highly significant Aboriginal cultural sites remaining in the region.

In his book Walks, Tracks and Trails of Queensland’s Tropic Derrick Stone said the population was nearly wiped out completely after European settlement.

Military historians have also uncovered Gia/Ngaro soldier Alex Bidice, born near Proserpine, who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1915.

He was assigned to reinforcements for the 47th Battalion entering the trenches of the Western Front in 1916, and served in Belgium.

Mr Bodice was wounded at Messines in 1917 and taken to a nearby casualty clearing station and treated for shell-shock, returning to take part in the attack at Passchendaele Ridge.

He was killed at Passchendaele on 12 October 1917, aged just 21-years-old.

Originally published as Gia, Ngaro peoples launch Native Title claim covering Airlie Beach, Whitsunday Islands