Lost Lands Report

Lost Lands Report Report

  • Author(s): Western Australian Aboriginal Affairs Department
  • Published: 2004

Abstract: This report has been written in response to a supplementary recommendation of the Report of the Review of the ALT: - that the Western Australian Government conduct a review into Aboriginal reserves which have been lost to the Aboriginal land estate and options for their recovery or replacement. This recommendation was included in the Report of the Review of the ALT because of long-standing interest on the part of many Western Australian Aboriginal people in the recovery of land which had once been reserved for their accommodation. During consultations with Aboriginal community representatives in 1995, strong expressions of interest in the recovery of these reserves were made to Neville Bonner, Chairman of the Review of the ALT. Twelve years earlier, similar concerns were also expressed to Commissioner Paul Seaman during the Aboriginal Land Inquiry. The Report of the Aboriginal Land Inquiry, which was released in 1984, made the following statement: "Aboriginal people frequently submitted that past governments had moved them from their homes on reserves at the stroke of a pen so that the land could be used for other purposes. The point was made with great feeling in the South West and at Roebourne, and it is clear from the evidence that the submissions are accurate. I accept that Aboriginal people while despising the methods by which they were put on the reserves and moved off them, have very deep feelings for them as homes and places where parents died and children were born." As a first step towards the enactment of the aforementioned supplementary recommendation of the Report of the Review of the ALT, the present document identifies all lands in Western Australia that were at one time reserved with the intention that they be used by or for Aboriginal people, and details are given of all such reserved lands which are not presently vested directly with Aboriginal corporations, or Aboriginal individuals, or with the ALT.

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Suggested Citation
Western Australian Aboriginal Affairs Department, 2004, Lost Lands Report, Report, viewed 07 February 2025, https://www.nintione.com.au/?p=3117.

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