Locals of a world-famous tourist spot are fearful they will be cut off from accessing a national park under a land claim by Indigenous corporations.
Residents on K’gari (formerly Fraser Island) are concerned about a ‘secretive’ land grab after an Indigenous corporation bid for freehold ownership of the two main townships, Eurong and Happy Valley.
The Fraser Island Association president David Anderson said if the bids go ahead, residents will effectively be landlocked.
‘We’ll have access to the beach, which is wonderful,’ he told 2GB’s Mark Levy.
‘We live close to the beach, but if you want to go for a bushwalk, we’ve got to walk along the road into the National Park to go for a walk, or hop in our cars and drive somewhere where we can get access to the bush.’
Mr Anderson said there were fears non-Indigenous residents and tourists could be locked out of the new area after the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation allegedly said they would be viewed as ‘trespassers’.
‘[Most of] the bushland around Eurong, which is something like 270 hectares of state land, is going to be transferred into Aboriginal freehold and that will be exclusive title.’
He said the move only comes because of an apparent administrative blunder in the 1960s that failed to gazette the township reserves for Eurong and Happy Valley.
Residents on K’gari (formerly Fraser island) are concerned about a ‘secretive’ land grab after an Indigenous corporation bid for freehold ownership
Native Title can only be claimed on vacant Crown land that is not gazetted for another purpose.
The Butchulla people, who hold native title over most of K’gari along with freehold lease on 30 hectares, have lodged the claim to five square kilometres of Eurong and Happy Valley transferred to them as ‘inalienable freehold’ under the Aboriginal Land Act.
Locals claim they were blind-sided and only told the transfer was ‘definitely happening’ at a meeting last week with the Department of Resources, Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation and Fraser Coast Council.
‘Obviously, the negotiations had been going on for quite some time with the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation, but we only found out about two years ago,’ Mr Anderson told 2GB.
‘Happy Valley had a very active community association at the time and they took up the issue.’
He said the proposed bid for Happy Valley brought it to the attention of Eurong, which is where Mr Anderson lives, ‘and we put together submissions which were ignored by the Department of Resources in Queensland’.
‘We then engaged lawyers, and the lawyers met with the department and with Crown law, and the department was told that they had to adopt procedural fairness otherwise any transfer would be invalid,’ Mr Anderson said.
‘So they then gave us the opportunity to put in fresh applications for preservation of land for future use.
‘We are happy to give them land around Eurong, but the land that we said we would like for future development, future infrastructure and community use was ignored.’
The Butchulla people, who hold native title over most of K’gari along with freehold lease on 30hectares, have lodged the claim to five square kilometres of Eurong and Happy Valley
Happy Valley Community Association secretary Scott Bell accused those involved of making a ‘secretive deal’ and said it only came to light by ‘accident’.
‘They (the Butchulla) made a claim on our police reserve, our education reserve and the esplanade which effectively denies us access to the beach,’ he said.
‘What people don’t realise is that the block of land next door where you go to exercise or walk your dog, you may not be able to do that in the future.’
A Department of Resources spokesman denied a deal had been made and said the meeting last week was to keep the community informed.
‘The department continues to work with the Butchulla people, the Fraser Coast Regional Council and the community on the proposed transfers,’ the spokesperson said.
The land bids on K’gari come when Aboriginal corporations have reportedly claimed freehold ownership of public land in 15 townships across Queensland.
Fraser Island Association president David Anderson said if the bids go ahead, residents will effectively be landlocked
The Courier Mail reported this was revealed by the Department of Resources in a question on notice in state parliament.
The 15 townships have not been named by the Department of Resources, due to privacy concerns of the First Nations groups which have lodged expressions of interest for the land transfers.
The Courier Mail reported over six million hectares of state land which is held in trust for the benefit of traditional owners and can’t be sold or mortgaged has been granted to Indigenous people across Queensland.
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