Background

In the early 2000’s White Cliffs residents were told that their dugouts would be exempt from the Native Title claim being made at the time by the Barkindji Prescribed Body Corporate, through the Barkindji Native Title Group Aboriginal Corporation as the Registered Native Title Body Corporate, (Barkindji Board).

The situation now

White Cliffs resident Dick Wagner organised a meeting in the Function Room at the Golf Club last Saturday, inviting White Cliffs and Wilcannia residents and the Barkindji Board (see below) to attend.

The purpose was to inform everyone of the current state of new lease agreements required to be signed by White Cliffs residents in relation to what the Native Title claim over their leases was up to.

This exemption no longer applies. The first lease agreement was renegotiated down from 51 pages to 42, though there was a comment that some of this may be due to reduced font size. However, according to many White Cliffs residents at the meeting the document still contains some unsettling provisions for residents and nothing beneficial to the Barkindji people. One speaker felt that most of the document was a cut and paste from Crown Lands pastoral leases and the Crown Lands office that signed off on the draft lease had never set foot in a dugout.

Several speakers said they had bought and paid for their dugouts, had done untold hours of work on improvements, it is their homes that this is all about.

Several Wilcannia residents spoke, and the general feeling was that the local Wilcannia community do not understand what is going on and they feel they have not been kept informed by the Barkindji Board. It was also expressed that the residents expected the Barkindji Board to be present as they had been specifically invited.

White Cliffs residents re-emphasised that they had no problem with Native Title as such, it was the detail that Crown Lands in particular seem to be insisting on. One point made was that it appears from the draft lease that Native Title holders will be free to hunt, fish and camp on dugouts. Dick Wagner suggested that the Crown Lands people had likely never been to White Cliffs or in a dugout.

The six (6) year ongoing saga with the White Cliffs mining leases is slowly being resolved, as that is how it appears to White Cliffs residents, governments move slowly.

Another problem raised was that of the sharing postcode of 2836 with Wilcannia and Gemville. For some they felt this impacts their insurance premiums.

Insurance was raised by a number of residents, it appears that insuring assets above ground will be possible but not those underground. This will have a great impact on many. in particular those who run underground orientated businesses.

Lindsay White spoke of the problems that will come when residents want to add a new room, Crown Lands and the Bardindji Board will have to grant permission and according to Dick there is no-one in NSW qualified to sign off on such underground developments.

When it comes to selling a dugout, it must first be offered to the Barkindji Board, raising the question is anywhere else in Australia subject to a similar lease condition?

Another White Cliffs business owner and resident said she felt that the lease agreement is written in threatening language: “if you don’t do this”, or “do this” you risk being evicted from your home. Also the lease agreement is subject the whims of the Minister of the day, change of Minister could change a lot of things.

Gail Hunt suggested that the group may need legal advice, which is expensive and that the Barkindji Board have a full team of legal advisers. She also said that the Native Title claim is to ensure the interests of the Barkindji people are looked after. But the issue is NOT with the residents of Wilcannia.

It was decided to request another meeting with Crown Lands and that all residents of both towns and the Barkdinji Board be invited to attend. This will give everyone the chance to hear the same information and express their thoughts. It was also decided that the lease agreement as sent to owners would not be signed in its current form, unless a red pen is used to removed the unacceptable conditions.

This article appeared in Wilcannia News, December 2024.