Native title bid for Alice Crown land

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p2325-Lhere-Artepe-1By ERWIN CHLANDA
 
Two Aboriginal groups are seeking support from the local native title organisation for the creation of sizeable “living areas” adjacent to existing suburbs, currently Crown Land labeled future development or conservation.
 
This is revealed in a document headed “Chairperson and Directors – Brief of Lhere Artepe” leaked to the Alice Springs News Online.
 
The document itself has no date but it contains a letter dated March 23, 2016.
 
One area sought is adjacent to the upmarket Stephens Road subdivision in the eastern part of the town, and the other in the north-western corner of the municipality near the end of Albrecht Drive.
 
One submission, for Lot 9872, is from a member of the Kunoth family seeking “another possible living area located within the Alice Springs area.
 
“The first location [not defined] was found to be culturally unsuitable for establishing a living area or residential block for the Kunoth’s family.”
 
Lot 9872 is more than 44 hectares. Part of that land, the areas in orange, are marked for further development.
 
The document includes a map of Mt Johns and Lot 9872 with a rectangle drawn inside measuring about 80 meters by 120 meters.
 
The much larger area, Lot 8089, nearly 206 hectares, is sought by the Liddle and Campbell Family to develop a “family residential area”.
p2325-Lhere-Artepe-2The Liddle / Campbell submission says it wants action under the Native Title determination in Alice Springs by the Federal Court providing “rights to possession, occupation, use and enjoyment” of land.
 
The submission requests “each family being allocated their own parcel of land” so native title holders can “establish themselves as people with stature with the community with [their] own residential areas.
 
“This would also meet the objectives” of Lhere Artepe.
 
The land should be “vested in or transferred … for the benefit of Native Title Holders”.
 
The document includes a letter signed by a member of the Liddle – Campbell family which states she is seeking a “family residential area within Alice Springs that will allow for our elderly, sick members and all other Liddle, Campbell members to develop as our living area”.
 
The Alice Springs News Online has requested comment from Lhere Artepe.
 
PLEASE NOTE the maps are of different scales. Areas marked for future development (FD) are shown in orange.
 
 

8 COMMENTS

  1. Is that block not culturally appropriate for the Kunoth family because they’re not from here?
    I thought they were from somewhere far to the northwest.
    And who’s that place down alongside Charley Creek for? You know that place, people call it Kunoth’s Camp?

  2. It’s my understanding that both these families have large homesteads on substantial acreages along the Golden Mile. At enormous expense ATSIC funded the cost of construction and also paid for water to be piped from town.
    These are million dollar plus properties.
    If the current claim for additional land in town is successful the cost of construction of houses should be covered by the recipients.

  3. @ Susan Sidler: I was living at one of the properties “along the Golden Mile” (near Fenn Gap, 30km west of town) when the water pipeline was installed by ATSIC – this was late 1997, early 1998.
    The pipeline didn’t go much further along Larapinta Drive beyond the location where I resided at the time.
    However, the project was planned several years in advance, as I retain in my records a Centralian Advocate front page story from 1994 when NT Government minister Mike Reed blasted ATSIC over its priorities about the water pipeline servicing so few people, including many with properties in town.
    Despite this, the installation of the pipeline proceeded, which clearly must have had approval from relevant NT Government authorities for it to do so.
    The cost was around $5m to $6m, as I recall; and I was informed by an engineer that the water pipeline (including two pump stations to maintain pressure) had a capacity to service a population of 6,000 residents.
    The project’s construction coincided with the Howard Government’s review into the NT Land Rights Act (the “Reeves Report”), which among several key recommendations included the removal of inalienability of Aboriginal Freehold Title.
    If this recommendation had been implemented, landholders along the Golden Mile potentially would have been able to subdivide and sell the land for a monumental windfall gain, with the major cost of a key service – the provision of water – paid for at taxpayers’ expense.
    However, there was widespread fierce resistance to the Reeves Report from Aboriginal communities across the NT, culminating in the Kalkaringi Statement of August 1998 which also put paid to the Statehood campaign for the Territory.
    So, Aboriginal Freehold Title retained its inalienable status, and the status quo remained for the Golden Mile with its new water pipeline – and no-one asks any questions.

  4. Alex, one of the reasons for NT Government support, in my recollection, was the provision of a reliable water supply to Simpsons Gap ranger station, and staff accommodation.
    An important part of this was the availability of water for fire fighting purposes.
    Of course it needed to go further to the Iwupataka land trust, but getting to Simpsons was a big first step.

  5. Wow, water for Simpsons and the Golden Mile! So why so hard to get water to White Gates a couple of kms past the grid on Undoolya Road?
    Been decades without.

  6. The bit of land in between White Gate and Undoolya Station was giving to the Kunoth family back in the day by other traditional owners. And it’s hard to get water out that way.

  7. The Kunoth family are one of the main traditional owners of Alice Springs, alongside the Stirling family.

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