IN a first for NSW, a Local Aboriginal Land Council will transfer land to a local government utility to improve water supply for the broader community while retaining cultural access to the site.
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Last Thursday an agreement was witnessed by NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Leslie Williams and signed between the Forster Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) and MidCoast Water. 1600 hectares will be purchased from the Land Council to develop a new source of water supply for the surrounding communities.
In return, the sale will finance social and economic development opportunities for Aboriginal people who will also retain a perpetual right of cultural access to the bush medicine site where they have fished and gathered food for thousands of years. The LALC will also retain the Medika Nursery site for further employment opportunities.
The previously sand mined Crown land near Nabiac had been returned to the LALC in a successful Aboriginal land claim in the 1990s.
“The sale of this land will allow the Forster Aboriginal Land Council to invest funds into significant social and economic development projects to support our local Aboriginal community and provide the land council with financial security,” Forster Local Aboriginal Land Council chief executive officer Dan Rose said.
“We are proud of the negotiation process that has taken place to bring about this land sale.”
MidCoast Water and the LALC have spent a number of years negotiating the purchase of the site for the Nabiac Inland Dune Aquifer to provide the community with a diversity of supply, additional capacity, lower pumping costs and a reduction on Bootawa Dam demand.
“As part of our ongoing management plan for the land we will ensure it is protected and will work to maintain and improve the natural biodiversity of the site,” MidCoast Water’s acting general manager Brendan Guiney explained.
“This is a significant moment for us, our community and the Forster Local Aboriginal Land Council.”
According to Forster Local Aboriginal Land Council chairperson Vince Hall, the sale is a “win-win situation for all concerned,” with MidCoast Water also withdrawing objections to land claims lodged by the LALC near the southern end of the site.
New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) councillor Peter Smith said he expected that these kinds of agreements would become more common as the NSW Land Rights system evolved.
