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On 25 October 1991 the title deeds to 3682 square kilometres of land in the Western Desert region, near the Northern Territory’s border with Western Australia, were delivered to the Yingualyalya Aboriginal Land Trust by Robert Tickner, the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, on behalf of the Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia. The land returned consists of two areas over which a May 1980 claim under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth) had been lodged by the Central Land Council on behalf of the Gurindji, Nyininy and Warlpiri traditional owners. The land is located near Piccaninny Bore, 600 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs.
Chairman of the Yingualyalya Aboriginal Land Trust, Mick Inverway, said: ‘I’m very pleased to see the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs coming from Alice Springs and a long way, coming here to Piccaninny Bore and he handed over that title, that’s very good! We got the land back. We’ll be able to look after that place’. Central Land Council Director David Ross said that the return of the land is a measure of the strength of the traditional landowners’ bond with their country. |
