Paul Bibby

Sydney Morning Herald

More than 20,700 hectares of government land worth $70 million has been granted to indigenous people in NSW under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act in the past 18 months. But it has barely made a dent in the sea of claims made by Aboriginal land councils across the state.

New figures show that a total area of land roughly equivalent to the Lamington National Park, on the NSW-Queensland border, was granted to the councils as the government churned through 1300 claims. Among the successful claims were 9641 hectares just outside Nowra, 168 hectares near Maitland and a cluster of smaller claims to the north, west and south of the Sydney metropolitan area. When it is eventually transferred to the land councils it will be used for indigenous housing, long-term economic development such as agriculture, industrial use or tourism, or put on the market.

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