Transfer of QueensLAND to First Nations

The tiny Queensland town of Toobeah is slowly being given away by the Government to our “First Nations” people. Even though many of us were also born here in Australia, apparently, they were here first and are entitled to free land. Apparently this is “closing the gap”, but in my reckoning, it’s just “widening the gorge”. Divide Australians up by their ethnicity. That will play out well, won’t it!

This is a photo of the Toobeah Hotel. Nice little country town of around 200 people. The Courier Mail are reporting: “Toobeah goes to war over land transfer to Aboriginal group”. And this is freehold land being transferred to the local Indigenous corporation.

If you take a look at the National Native Title Tribunal website, click on Assistance, Geospatial, and then click on Maps. Scrolling down you’ll reach National Maps (you can also look at state and territory maps), select Claims and Determinations, and then if you scroll down, you can download the selected map. Here’s the map. Basically, everything in green is land currently under native title, while blue represents land that is currently going through the application process. As you can see, a lot of land is under Indigenous ownership (if that’s the right word).

If you look down the lower left, there’s a table (I’ll zoom up on it for you), which shows the percentage land under native title. As you can see, 41.9% of Queensland is subject to a determination, South Australia 67.2%, Western Australia 87.1%! Overall, 52% of Australia is subject to a native title determination. Interestingly, the Australian Capital Territory, where a lot of our politicians hang out, only has 0%. That’s strange. They’re the only territory to have voted Yes in the recent Indigenous Voice referendum.

This is the Queensland Government’s Department of Treaty Closing the Gap website. On there you’ll find their Closing the Gap Implementation Plan. If you search for Outcome 15, Target 15a: By 2030, a 15% increase in Australia’s landmass subject to Aboriginal peoples’ and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ legal rights or interests. And Target 15b is essentially the same things except it’s for their legal rights or interests in the sea. Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people make up approximately 3.8% of the population, and by the looks of it, the goal is to take it all, and the Government is essentially allowing it to happen.

Back to our friends at Toobeah. The locals are rightfully upset. “Residents claim the Goondiwindi Regional Council – led by high-profile mayor Lawrence Springborg – has failed to consult the 300-strong community on the imminent State Government transfer of the 220ha Toobeah Reserve to the Bigambul Aboriginal Corporation. To be fair to Mr Springborg, he stated: “I am not the decision maker on Toobeah Reserve. The decision maker is the state, under the Aboriginal Land Act, and we (the council) are the current trustee responsible for managing stock watering and camping.”

Michael Offerdahl, whose family runs the local hotel which backs onto the reserve, is furious. He said, “If we want to go for a swim in the creek, we’d have to ask them – and there’s nothing to stop them from locking up the reserve if they so choose. We’re the first bastion of defence for this – if we cop it now it sets an insane precedent. At first I was just worried about the growth of our town – we need 20 more houses to support the cotton and dry land farmers and they could be built on that land – but now my biggest fear is for other places across Queensland.”

I guess the Queensland Government figure they may as well test the waters, so to speak, in these smaller towns, and then work their way up to bigger towns and cities. Perhaps they should reconsider the name of Queensland (seeing they’re so intent on giving it away). Perhaps “Aboriginaland”? At least tourists will know where they stand when they arrive in our state.

Senator for Queensland, Pauline Hanson, is calling for a pause on the transfer until the residents have been given the opportunity to be consulted.

Justin Saunders, executive director of the BAC, said that the corporation will not be closing the reserve to the public.

I’m not sure what we can do about all this where the Government are dividing up land based on ethnicity, but the most obvious first step is to vote out the current Queensland Government at this year’s state election in October. They don’t listen to the people. They just do what they want. I’m not saying who to vote for, as long it’s not these guys. They just don’t have the interests of all Queenslanders at heart. When will these fools see that if we are not all equal, we are doomed as a society?

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn