Aboriginal corporation takes freehold land parcel surrounding small town

THE brave new world of indigenous “self government” has come to south western Queensland with the surprise announcement that an Aboriginal corporation has taken control of a 220 hectare reserve surrounding the tiny town of Toobeah, west of Goondiwindi.

According to a report in the Epoch Times, local people were recently surprised by plans by the Queensland Government to hand over “95 percent” of freehold town land to the Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (BNTAC), which has already been recognised as native title holders over most of the Goondiwindi region following a federal court decision in 2016.

But Goondiwindi Mayor and former premier Lawrence Springborg said the freehold reserve surrounding the town was the subject of the land claim, and the reserve had been used illegally in the past – something the council had ignored.

Toobeah Reserve has been used as a recreational area by residents, and includes a pipe that delivers water to the town. The pipe is officially gazetted for livestock use and how this will affect locals is a major source of concern.

“95 percent of the town, it’s just completely not true,” Springborg told the media outlet. “The reserve is not the town.” But Springborg did admit that residents were rightly concerned about a lack of transparency around the land takeover.

Michael Offerdahl, owner of the Toobeah Hotel, said the area involved was the “town common, rodeo ground, town hall and town dump.” There were only 12 to 14 houses in the town with a population of about 30 and no sewerage or potable water. “They’ve been doing this plan up, it’s all been secret, no community consultation,” he told the Epoch Times.

BNTAC applied for joint trusteeship over the reserve four years ago and the process was then transferred into a freehold application in 2021 which carries with it confidentiality. Aboriginal freehold is also a collective title that prevents owners from selling, mortgaging or transferring it, although it can be leased to another party.

The lack of individual Aboriginals and/or families owning freehold land has been cited as one of the major reasons for poverty among this group of Australians.

The Mayor said a privacy provision existed with virtually all government dealings, not just Indigenous title and he had no doubts people didn’t know about this until earlier this year. He said such decisions should be in open meetings.

He said the native title holders had so far been open to potentially transferring some of the land for future town expansion but public unrest could result in nothing of this coming about.

But Mr Offerdahl, who has lived in Toobeah since he was a child, said locals had been trying to work with the Bigambul people “because we wanted to tell the history of the area—theirs, ours—but they just don’t want a bar of it.”

Cairns News has emailed the BNTAC asking for comment on the situation and what future plans they might have for the area.