Post by Flash on Oct 6, 2007 11:36:09 GMT -5
WITH its golden sands and crashing waves, Byron Bay looks one of the most peaceful places on earth.
Venture into the township, however, and things are quite different; secrecy, suspicion and fear of the unknown are now taking hold.
The issue dividing the community is that, any day now, a secret agreement negotiated with the local Aboriginal community is about to be registered, transferring up to 24 blocks of prime Byron Bay real estate -- valued at up to $100million -- out of Crown hands.
The ownership of several of the blocks will be transferred to the Arakwal Corporation. Included in the deal for the Arakwal people are: two freehold blocks of land at Byron Bay's most exclusive beach, Wategos; land in the centre of town at the historic Sandhills Estate, which includes a childcare centre and a youth centre; a strip of land next to the high school; and freehold ownership of the caravan park at Broken Head, a site worth up to $30million.
Now the Arakwal are claiming the waters off the main beach of Byron Bay as well as another caravan park, at Clarkes beach, adjoining the main beach.
Byron being Byron, many locals are sympathetic to the aims of the native title legislation passed amid much fanfare in the mid-1990s; this is not redneck country.
But the secrecy surrounding the process has led to growing anger.
The deal, called an Indigenous Land Use Agreement, will make the Arakwal (Bundjalung) Corporation one of the wealthiest organisations in the area -- yet that group will not even say who is on its board. Many locals -- including councillors -- have tried to find out what lands are to be transferred. The NSW Department of Lands and the National Native Title Tribunal have released some maps and media releases but the detail is scant and the terms of the transfers are not included.
The first claim was lodged in 1995, a second claim made in 1997 (which included the Cape Byron lighthouse) was successful and in 2001 a third claim was lodged, much of which is currently being decided.
The Native Title Tribunal said in February: "The group claimed to hold native title in and around Byron Bay, as far north as Brunswick Heads, as far south to Broken Head, westward to Mullumbimby and Bangalow and approximately three nautical miles east of the mean high water mark."
The woman who will be in charge of these properties -- Yvonne Stewart, the acting chief executive of the Arakwal Corporation -- is not giving details.
"That's confidential," she said when asked by The Weekend Australian which lands were being transferred. To emphasise the point, she picked up her folder and showed the "confidential" stamp.
Ms Stewart said the reason the local council didn't know what was happening was because a council committee set up to monitor it had become "dormant over the last couple of years because of disagreement".
The National Native Title Tribunal isn't saying either.
A spokeswoman yesterday said it could not reveal the details of the land transfer because it was merely a mediator.
Asked why the imminent handing over of public land should be kept secret, she said: "I would imagine you'd have to check that with the parties."
The only other party authorised to give details, the NSW Department of Lands, likewise isn't saying much.
It issued a statement yesterday which claimed Byron Bay Shire Council had been "actively involved" in the whole process, which does not fit with Ms Stewart's description of the council committee as "dormant".
Because the council committee had broken down, Ms Stewart said she now dealt only with Byron's mayor Jan Barham.
But when asked what land was being handed over, Ms Barham, too, insisted she did not know.
Part of the land transfer, Ms Stewart said, involved "a sacred women's area which I can't say much about".
Because the council has in effect been locked out, locals have received very little information about the upcoming land transfer.
Ms Stewart conceded she was prepared for a backlash when the full details of the transfer were announced in coming weeks.
The transferral will culminate a 14-year native title claim begun by two aunts of Ms Stewart, Dulcie Nicholls and Linda Vidler.
Ms Stewart said she grew up in a caravan park and her aunts did not have their own homes because the Arakwal were dispossessed. "It was stolen and taken," she said. "Our people were driven out."
Ms Stewart said the concerns of locals were invalid.
"If a white developer went in there and bought that land, would there be a problem?"
She has enjoyed stirring some of the locals who have been asking her what she intends to do with the land at the exclusive Wategos where another block with a house on it recently sold for $16 million.
She responded, jokingly, to one Wategos resident: "I might just move some of the mob in and turn it into a mission."
Ms Stewart said exactly what lands were being transferred would stay confidential until the Native Title Tribunal registered the agreement. Locals said this was inadequate, because then there could be no discussion.
About 124 hectares of Crown land have already been transferred to the Arakwal as part of the Bundjalung National Park.
Through various sources The Weekend Australian was able to piece together that after the agreement the Arakwal will own: the current Broken Head caravan site worth an estimated $30 million; at least two blocks at Wategos Beach, totalling 4000sqm and worth an estimated $15 million; a strip of land next to the Byron Bay High School; and a claim over future earnings from sale of the Sandhills Estate.
Ms Stewart said the Arakwal would be pursuing a new claim for an existing marine park -- the waters from Brunswick Heads to Broken Head, which include the main beach at Byron Bay.
This would give them fishing, commercial and access rights.
They have also put in a claim for the Clarkes Beach caravan park, which joins the main beach at Byron Bay, and parts of Belongil Beach.
Because the upcoming claim was not contested, locals feel aspects not strictly under native title jurisdiction have been included. For example, under a deal whereby one of the most valuable pieces of land in the centre of Byron Bay, the Sandhills Estate, is sold, the Arakwal Corporation will receive a proportion of the proceeds. (Ms Stewart would not say how much.)
The claim was not contested because the Greens-dominated council endorsed the claim and NSW Greens MLC Ian Cohen helped liaise with the NSW Government.
Byron Bay's longest-serving councillor, independent Ross Tucker, supports native title claims but said the secrecy surrounding the Arakwal Corporation deal was almost enough to make him withdraw his support.
He said any deal involving public land or money should be open. "The sympathy I have (for native title claims) is starting to wear very thin if this is the way we are going about this," he said.
The locals say what worries them is that the transfer of land appears to go beyond what they understood as native title claims: for example, the caravan park will not be used for settlement by the Arakwal/Bundjalong people but rather they will take over the running of the business that generates $780,000 a year profit.
The first that one of the locals, Oliver Dunne, knew that property near him at Wategos Beach was to be transferred was when a neighbour told him there were some surveyors checking out the land behind their houses because it was about to be transferred to the Arakwal. The Arakwal were given land at Tallows Beach under a previous agreement.
The lawyer for the Arakwal, Adam McLane, said yesterday the upcoming agreement granted certainty to the wider Byron Bay community. "It removes uncertainty over native title as an issue," he said.
He disputed claims by locals and councillors that there had not been adequate consultation, saying that over 14 years there had been many opportunities for consultation
Venture into the township, however, and things are quite different; secrecy, suspicion and fear of the unknown are now taking hold.
The issue dividing the community is that, any day now, a secret agreement negotiated with the local Aboriginal community is about to be registered, transferring up to 24 blocks of prime Byron Bay real estate -- valued at up to $100million -- out of Crown hands.
The ownership of several of the blocks will be transferred to the Arakwal Corporation. Included in the deal for the Arakwal people are: two freehold blocks of land at Byron Bay's most exclusive beach, Wategos; land in the centre of town at the historic Sandhills Estate, which includes a childcare centre and a youth centre; a strip of land next to the high school; and freehold ownership of the caravan park at Broken Head, a site worth up to $30million.
Now the Arakwal are claiming the waters off the main beach of Byron Bay as well as another caravan park, at Clarkes beach, adjoining the main beach.
Byron being Byron, many locals are sympathetic to the aims of the native title legislation passed amid much fanfare in the mid-1990s; this is not redneck country.
But the secrecy surrounding the process has led to growing anger.
The deal, called an Indigenous Land Use Agreement, will make the Arakwal (Bundjalung) Corporation one of the wealthiest organisations in the area -- yet that group will not even say who is on its board. Many locals -- including councillors -- have tried to find out what lands are to be transferred. The NSW Department of Lands and the National Native Title Tribunal have released some maps and media releases but the detail is scant and the terms of the transfers are not included.
The first claim was lodged in 1995, a second claim made in 1997 (which included the Cape Byron lighthouse) was successful and in 2001 a third claim was lodged, much of which is currently being decided.
The Native Title Tribunal said in February: "The group claimed to hold native title in and around Byron Bay, as far north as Brunswick Heads, as far south to Broken Head, westward to Mullumbimby and Bangalow and approximately three nautical miles east of the mean high water mark."
The woman who will be in charge of these properties -- Yvonne Stewart, the acting chief executive of the Arakwal Corporation -- is not giving details.
"That's confidential," she said when asked by The Weekend Australian which lands were being transferred. To emphasise the point, she picked up her folder and showed the "confidential" stamp.
Ms Stewart said the reason the local council didn't know what was happening was because a council committee set up to monitor it had become "dormant over the last couple of years because of disagreement".
The National Native Title Tribunal isn't saying either.
A spokeswoman yesterday said it could not reveal the details of the land transfer because it was merely a mediator.
Asked why the imminent handing over of public land should be kept secret, she said: "I would imagine you'd have to check that with the parties."
The only other party authorised to give details, the NSW Department of Lands, likewise isn't saying much.
It issued a statement yesterday which claimed Byron Bay Shire Council had been "actively involved" in the whole process, which does not fit with Ms Stewart's description of the council committee as "dormant".
Because the council committee had broken down, Ms Stewart said she now dealt only with Byron's mayor Jan Barham.
But when asked what land was being handed over, Ms Barham, too, insisted she did not know.
Part of the land transfer, Ms Stewart said, involved "a sacred women's area which I can't say much about".
Because the council has in effect been locked out, locals have received very little information about the upcoming land transfer.
Ms Stewart conceded she was prepared for a backlash when the full details of the transfer were announced in coming weeks.
The transferral will culminate a 14-year native title claim begun by two aunts of Ms Stewart, Dulcie Nicholls and Linda Vidler.
Ms Stewart said she grew up in a caravan park and her aunts did not have their own homes because the Arakwal were dispossessed. "It was stolen and taken," she said. "Our people were driven out."
Ms Stewart said the concerns of locals were invalid.
"If a white developer went in there and bought that land, would there be a problem?"
She has enjoyed stirring some of the locals who have been asking her what she intends to do with the land at the exclusive Wategos where another block with a house on it recently sold for $16 million.
She responded, jokingly, to one Wategos resident: "I might just move some of the mob in and turn it into a mission."
Ms Stewart said exactly what lands were being transferred would stay confidential until the Native Title Tribunal registered the agreement. Locals said this was inadequate, because then there could be no discussion.
About 124 hectares of Crown land have already been transferred to the Arakwal as part of the Bundjalung National Park.
Through various sources The Weekend Australian was able to piece together that after the agreement the Arakwal will own: the current Broken Head caravan site worth an estimated $30 million; at least two blocks at Wategos Beach, totalling 4000sqm and worth an estimated $15 million; a strip of land next to the Byron Bay High School; and a claim over future earnings from sale of the Sandhills Estate.
Ms Stewart said the Arakwal would be pursuing a new claim for an existing marine park -- the waters from Brunswick Heads to Broken Head, which include the main beach at Byron Bay.
This would give them fishing, commercial and access rights.
They have also put in a claim for the Clarkes Beach caravan park, which joins the main beach at Byron Bay, and parts of Belongil Beach.
Because the upcoming claim was not contested, locals feel aspects not strictly under native title jurisdiction have been included. For example, under a deal whereby one of the most valuable pieces of land in the centre of Byron Bay, the Sandhills Estate, is sold, the Arakwal Corporation will receive a proportion of the proceeds. (Ms Stewart would not say how much.)
The claim was not contested because the Greens-dominated council endorsed the claim and NSW Greens MLC Ian Cohen helped liaise with the NSW Government.
Byron Bay's longest-serving councillor, independent Ross Tucker, supports native title claims but said the secrecy surrounding the Arakwal Corporation deal was almost enough to make him withdraw his support.
He said any deal involving public land or money should be open. "The sympathy I have (for native title claims) is starting to wear very thin if this is the way we are going about this," he said.
The locals say what worries them is that the transfer of land appears to go beyond what they understood as native title claims: for example, the caravan park will not be used for settlement by the Arakwal/Bundjalong people but rather they will take over the running of the business that generates $780,000 a year profit.
The first that one of the locals, Oliver Dunne, knew that property near him at Wategos Beach was to be transferred was when a neighbour told him there were some surveyors checking out the land behind their houses because it was about to be transferred to the Arakwal. The Arakwal were given land at Tallows Beach under a previous agreement.
The lawyer for the Arakwal, Adam McLane, said yesterday the upcoming agreement granted certainty to the wider Byron Bay community. "It removes uncertainty over native title as an issue," he said.
He disputed claims by locals and councillors that there had not been adequate consultation, saying that over 14 years there had been many opportunities for consultation