Burgeoning Indigenous land ownership: Diverse values and strategic potentialities

Abstract

There have been two major tranches of Indigenous land rights reform in Australia since colonisation. The first, during the 1970s to 1990s, was based on broadly compensatory land rights regimes passed by Commonwealth and State governments. By 1992 about eight per cent of the Australian continent was held under some form of land rights regime; almost all this land was located in remote Northern Territory and South Australia. Other land rights regimes, with more limited geographic coverage, have been legislated in every Australian State or Territory except for Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. In the aftermath of Mabo v Queensland in 1992 and the passage of the Native Title Act 1993, a second tranche of Indigenous land repossession has unfolded. Both land rights and native title are ongoing processes.