Thursday, January 22, 2015

SA: Barngarla Native Title claim upheld

A judge has upheld most of a native title claim relating to two-thirds of South Australia’s Eyre peninsula.

The Barngarla claim, which includes land and waters covering an area of about 44,480 square kilometres, was filed in April 1996.



Justice John Mansfield on Thursday upheld the claim, but excluded the Port Augusta township area, the Spencer Gulf Islands and an area to the south of Port Lincoln.

The federal court judge said he was satisfied that each of the claimed native title rights prima facie existed. But the issue of whether those rights had been subsequently extinguished was a question to be determined in a subsequent hearing, he said.

Parties involved in the claim include the commonwealth, commercial fishers, mining companies and pastoralists. The judge heard evidence and legal argument on the issue of the existence of native title over 22 days from November 2012 to September 2013.

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