Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The NT was also ailing economically, and the good citizens of Darwin were soon
brought to their knees once more. On Christmas Eve 1974, Cyclone Tracy ripped through
the city, killing 71 people and destroying more than 70% of Darwin's buildings.
From the late '70s into the 1990s, mining dug a tunnel to economic recovery. In SA,
huge deposits of uranium, copper, silver and gold were found at Roxby Downs, plus oil
and gas in the Cooper Basin. In the NT, copper and gold were unearthed at Tennant
Creek, and oil and gas in the Amadeus Basin. Bauxite was found at Gove, manganese at
Groote Eylandt, and uranium at Batchelor and (more controversially) Kakadu.
LAND RIGHTS IN CENTRAL AUSTRALIA
Britain colonised Australia on the legal principle of 'terra nullius' ,meaning the
country was unoccupied. Early colonists could therefore take land from Aboriginal
peoples without signing treaties or providing compensation. This principle re-
mained legally potent until the landmark Mabo High Court decision in 1992, which
voided the presumption of terra nullius and officially recognised native title as a
traditional connection to or occupation of Australian lands.
Preceding the Mabo decision, in 1966 the South Australian government made
the first move of any Australian state to give Aboriginal peoples title to their land.
The Aboriginal Lands Trust was created, vesting title to the missions and reserves
still operating in South Australia. These lands are leased back to their Aboriginal
occupants, who have repeated rights of renewal. The South Australian parliament
then passed two pieces of legislation, the Prohibition of Discrimination Actand the
Aboriginal Affairs Act,giving South Australian Aboriginal peoples the right to run
their own communities.
In 1981 the Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Actwas drawn, granting freehold title to an
area of northwest SA to the Anangu-Pitjantjatjara. Another 76,000 sq km, occu-
pied by the federal government as part of the Maralinga project, was returned to
traditional owners in 1984. Land held under Aboriginal freehold title cannot be sold
or taken back into public ownership, and no development can begin without per-
mission of traditional owners.
A more convoluted land-rights path has been navigated in the Northern Territ-
ory. In 1962 a bark petition was presented to the federal government by the Yolngu
peoples of Yirrakala, in northeast Arnhem Land, demanding the government re-
cognise Aboriginal peoples' occupation and ownership of Australia since time im-
memorial. The petition was ignored, so the Yolngu peoples took the matter to court
- and lost.
But the wheels had begun to turn, and under increasing pressure the federal
government passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Actin 1976,
