Native Title Year in Review 2015 

Welcome to the Ashurst review of Indigenous land law developments over the last 12 months. In this review we look back at recent key cases and developments in native title and discuss their implications for proponents.

Despite the continued downturn in the resources industry, there has still been an abundance of activity in native title and Aboriginal cultural heritage matters.

From an Ashurst perspective, 2015 was a busy year for our Indigenous land law team. We have assisted our clients across the continent in unique and complex native title matters, including some of the largest value settlements in the iron ore fields of Western Australia, expansion of coal projects in New South Wales, settlement of longstanding disputes in South Australia, complex consent determinations in Queensland and mining agreements in the Northern Territory.

We were also honoured to again be named Band 1 in Native Title in Chambers Asia-Pacific/Chambers Global. We have maintained this reputationaI ranking every year since 2007.

The survey of cases in the last year serves to demonstrate that native title remains a contested field. However, there have been some fine achievements, with longstanding and controversial claims finally resolved. We have seen the recognition of the Yandruwandha Yawarrawarrka as native holders in the Cooper Basin in South Australia and the Barkandji People as native title holders in far western New South Wales. Over in the west, the South West settlement was finalised (other than the final ILUA registration phase). The fact that these claims, with so many complex third party issues, were able to be creatively resolved shows the maturing of the native title system. Looking forward, we expect the much anticipated compensation phase to gain more traction. The Timber Creek compensation claim promises to finally deliver some case law regarding how native title compensation is to be assessed. 2016 looks to be a most interesting year for native title law.

We hope that you find this review useful.