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Case, Natasha; Curtin, Melanie; Fountain, John; Johns, Kamilla; Menzies, Nick; Murphy, Sally; Fernando, Michelle; Eagleton, Richard --- "Recent Happenings" [1998] IndigLawB 67; (1998) 4(14) Indigenous Law Bulletin 22


Recent Happenings

Compiled by Natasha Case, Melanie Curtin, John Fountain, Nick Menzies, Kamilla Johns, Sally Murphy, Michelle Fernando, and Richard Eagleton

10 June:

Federal Minister for Resources and Energy, Mr Warwick Parer, announced eighteen locations within a region encompassing Roxby Downs, Woomera and Andamooka, as possible sites for a national radioactive waste dump. The final site will be announced at the end of the year, following consultations with farmers and Aborigines.

10 June:

Justice Alan Demack of the Queensland Supreme Court dismissed with costs Savage Togara Pry Ltd's application for a declaration that native title had been extinguished over four pastoral leases in Central Queensland. His honour ruled that the existence of native title must be resolved before the question of law (extinguishment) could be decided, and that such a determination was not within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

12 June:

The Federal Government announced the completion of its $100 million project to clean up the former British nuclear weapons testing facility at Maralinga in order to facilitate limited access for its original owners, the Maralinga-Tjarutja people. In 1997, Dean Brown, South Australian Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, announced the state's plans to turn the site into a tourist facility.

15 June:

Work commenced on the first stage of ERAS Jabiluka uranium mine.

18 June:

Amnesty International released a report revealing that Australia had recorded its highest number of deaths in custody in 1997.

25 June:

In Melbourne, between 600 and 1,000 secondary school students attended a Students Against Racism Rally.

6 July:

In the Federal Court, Justice Howard Olney recognised the subsistence of native title in the seas and sea-beds around Croker and adjacent Islands in the Arafura Sea. His judgement in Mary Yamirr & Ors v The Northern Territory of Australia & Ors indicated that the content of the title includes rights to non-exclusive access to the sea and sea-beds for the purposes of non-commercial hunting, fishing and gathering.

7 July:

The Native Title Amendment Act, 1998 (Cth) was passed by the Senate.

7 July:

Jervis Bay National Park was renamed Booderee National Park. The area is jointly managed by traditional owners and the Commonwealth.

8 July:

Protesters were arrested en masse at the ERA uranium mining lease at Jabiluka.

13 July:

National Native Title Tribunal member Fred Chancy commenced mediation of the Kuyani Native Title Application. The claim represents the native title interests of 880 people and applies to an area of 150,000 square kilometres in the north of South Australia.

13 July:

Several members of the Federal Government attacked Pat Dodson for spending $30,000 in preparations for a land use conference in Broome. The Prime Minister declared that it was unacceptable for ATSIC to be spending money on a land rights conference instead of on Aboriginal health. Senator John Herron subsequently ordered an audit of all conferences funded by ATSIC in the past two years. It was later revealed that Senator Herron had chartered a plane to attend the conference at a cost of $25,000.

22 July:

Justice Sally Thomas commenced hearing an appeal by the Mirrar people against Minister Eric Poole's decision to allow ERA to build the first stage of the Jabiluka uranium mine. It was revealed in evidence that the Northern Territory Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority had refused to register the site, which forms part of the Boiweg-Almudj complex, because of its `highly contentious' nature.

23 July:

Justice John Muir of the Queensland Supreme Court adjourned an application by the Queensland Government to strike out the Dulungbara, Batchala and Ngulungbara peoples' claim for common law native title over Kgari, the Great Sandy Region of Fraser Island.


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