{"id":337567,"date":"2023-09-21T14:41:05","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T04:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=337567"},"modified":"2023-09-22T21:32:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T11:32:26","slug":"native-title-recognised-in-nbrc-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2023\/09\/21\/native-title-recognised-in-nbrc-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Native Title Recognised In NBRC Area"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At the courthouse in Brisbane on Thursday … from left, Sidney Smith, Shane Dynevor Jr, Stephen Pickering, Justice Darryl Rangiah, James Chapman, Patricia Bond, Marissa Cobbo, Craig Reiach (QSNTS), Cheryl Smith, Ricardo Martinez (QSNTS) and Katrina Watson; at front, Michael Bond (Photo: QSNTS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

September 21, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

A special hearing of the Federal Court in Brisbane on Thursday has resolved the last of the outstanding Wakka Wakka Native Title claims.<\/p>\n

In April 2022, the Federal Court determined Native Title applications, known as “Wakka Wakka People #3” and Part A of “Wakka Wakka People #4”, recognising that Wakka Wakka People had exclusive Native Title rights to areas within the South Burnett region.<\/p>\n

This hearing was held in Cherbourg.<\/p>\n

However, Part B of the Wakka Wakka People #4 application, which covered portions of the North Burnett Regional Council area, was still under negotiation at the time.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Justice Darryl Rangiah handed down a determination on this Part B application, recognising the Wakka Wakka People as Native Title Holders over an extra 8572.4ha of land and water.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of this, exclusive Native Title covers 90 parcels of land, totalling about 48.33ha;\u00a0 non-exclusive areas total 8524.07ha.<\/p>\n

The determination gives effect to a consent agreement signed between the Wakka Wakka People, the State of Queensland, the North Burnett Regional Council and various other stakeholders.<\/p>\n

It covers areas within the towns of Eidsvold, Mundubbera, Binjour and Gayndah as well as stretches of the Burnett River and a number of creeks that flow into the Burnett.<\/p>\n

Solicitor Craig Reiach, from Queensland South Native Title Services, represented the applicants, many of whom were in court to hear the determination.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He told the court the current proceedings had been ongoing for over 10 years but the history of the Wakka Wakka People’s pursuit of recognition of their Native Title stretched back more than 25 years.<\/p>\n

“Despite 180 years of the combined impact of dispossession of their lands, frontier violence, protectionism,\u00a0 segregation and attempts at assimilation, including the forced removal of their people and internment at missions such as Cherbourg, my clients – the Wakka Wakka People – are here today, including in this courtroom, as recognised Native Title Holders,” Mr Reiach said.<\/p>\n

He said this Part B determination was just as significant as last year’s determinations, especially for families whose ancestors were particularly connected to the area.<\/p>\n

“Over thousands of years, successive generations of Wakka Wakka people have lived on, accessed, hunted and fished, collected bush tucker and medicines and other natural resources, and conducted ceremonies, and talked the Wakka Wakka language, and practised their law and custom, and maintained and protected their cultural sites, within their traditional country,” Mr Reiach said.<\/p>\n

“They have done so in the face of countless obstacles that threatened their continued existence as a people.<\/p>\n

“Dispossession by European invaders of the Wakka Wakka People’s traditional lands within what is now the proposed Determination area took place from about the late 1840s.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Frontier violence against the Aboriginal population of the region is recorded from 1848 onwards.<\/p>\n

“The Wakka Wakka People’s determined resistance to dispossession of their traditional lands and dispersal of the Aboriginal population led to bloody frontier conflict, characterised by violent and deadly reprisals.<\/p>\n

“The pace of the unwelcome incursions by non-Aboriginal settlers into Wakka Wakka land picked up through the 1880s, particularly with the gold rush in the Eidsvold region, and in the early 1890s with intensive agriculture within the Burnett River region.”<\/p>\n

He said Wakka Wakka people moved to permanent camps on the fringes of properties within their ancestral area, which provided relative safety from the violence and killings, and allowed them to maintain kinship networks and customs.<\/p>\n

This continued, he said, despite being severely tested again by the passing of the 1897 Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act which fostered cruel and unjust government policies of segregation, protectionism and assimilation.<\/p>\n

Justice Rangiah said the court was recognising what the Wakka Wakka People had always known, that the land, subject to the Determination, had always been and always would be their land.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said it was an occasion of great joy for the Wakka Wakka People.<\/p>\n

“It is a day to celebrate, it represents a new beginning, it represents a recognition by all the Australian people of your history, your traditions, your culture and your rightful place in this country,” Justice Rangiah said.<\/p>\n