Fate seemed to hang in the balance for the little village of Ebor. A premium beef production company, Stone Axe Pastoral, was going to develop the biggest full-blooded Wagyu cattle herd outside Japan, which would create nearly 200 jobs in the community, and ensure the village’s financial viability.
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Hopes of economic development were dashed, however, after the local voluntary organisation's plans to turn Crown land into housing ran into an Aboriginal land rights claim.
“Ebor is never again likely to be given this opportunity to grow and strengthen, or to be offered such extensive employment prospects,” said Bryson Wade, secretary of the Ebor Community Group.
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The community organisation had decided to secure land for residential accommodation before it heard of Stone Axe’s proposal. Although the village experienced a real estate boom for three years, the last property was sold last year. The community organisation decided to turn Crown land into housing.
“It has always been common knowledge that our founding fathers had made provision for just such an eventuality, when they set aside a large parcel of land, mostly within the town boundary for the future expansion of the community,” Mr Wade said.
“And so the timing seemed perfect for Ebor Community Group to apply to Crown Lands to have the land released. After all, wasn’t the NSW Government actively pushing for Regional Development and the strengthening of remote economies?”
The Ebor Community Group applied to have 24 hectares of land released from the Crown to build affordable housing. Most of this land had been set aside in 1921 to be used for the village's future development (including residential accommodation), and was surveyed into streets, blocks, allotments, and parklands, contiguous with the existing town. A small parcel of land lay outside village zoning.
At the same time, Stone Axe Pastoral announced its intention to breed the largest full-blood Wagyu cattle herd outside Japan, with a co-investment of $3.3 million from the NSW government and $6.7 million from First State Super. Stone Axe expected to create 76 jobs by 2022, and 114 indirect jobs.
“Suddenly this all seemed heaven-sent,” Mr Wade said, “and Ebor’s future guaranteed. We knew that even modest growth of our community should at last kill off that annual threat to close our school because of insufficient numbers, let alone its potential flow-on benefits to the local economy and services.”
The community organisation’s housing scheme would give Stone Axe’s 200 workers somewhere to live.
A fortnight later, the NSW Department of Industry refused permission, because the land was subject to an Aboriginal land rights claim.
“Initial investigations have identified that Lot 61 is subject to an undetermined Aboriginal Land Claim,” the Department wrote. “The Department of Industry – Lands & Water cannot consider any sale or disposal of Crown Land until the Land Claim is settled.
“Due to the number of outstanding Aboriginal Land Claims, DoI – Lands & Water are unable to provide you with any timeframes as to when the Land Claim in question may be resolved.
“Consequently, the Department of Industry – Lands & Water cannot process your request.”
The Dorrigo Plateau Local Aboriginal Land Council had applied for the Crown land in March 2016, long before Stone Axe appeared on the scene.
Land is claimable under the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 if it is crown land, not lawfully used or occupied, and not needed or likely to be needed as residential land or for an essential public purpose, and not subject to native title. If the claim is successful, land is transferred to the Local Aboriginal Land Council, who manage the land in accordance with the Act.
Land Rights determinations may be appealed in the Land and Environment Court, and most are determined in a claimant’s favour. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported in 2016 that there were 29,000 Aboriginal land claims, which would take at least 90 years to resolve.
“Only a few hundred are resolved in each calendar year,” Mr Wade said. “That means that ours would go to the bottom of the pile and at the current rate of resolution, we could expect to wait well over 50 years for a determination.”
The government has introduced changes under the Crown Land Management Act 2016 to improve the management of crown land, eliminate red tape, and speed up decision making; these new measures will come into effect this year.
When informed by Fairfax Media, the LALC’s CEO, Robin Heath, thought Stone Axe’s project was an excellent one, and looked forward to opening discussions.
“I think it's a pretty good proposal and terms,” Mr Heath said, “but we want to have a bit more of insight with the members in relation to where we're going with this. We think it's got a lot of potential. If it creates the 200 jobs they expect it to generate by 2022, I think that's long overdue in terms of Aboriginal people getting employed in the industry. We look forward to progressing the agreement, and seeing where we can end up with good outcomes for both parties.”
Mr Heath hoped that they would soon be able to resolve the claim.
“We don't want it to take forever, and hold the negotiations up. We want to have a quick resolution to the process, and try and be a bit flexible on both sides of the program, so that everybody has a decent outcome and it does what it says and employing our people in the long term.
“I just hope it progresses in a manner everybody's happy with, and it probably might create a bit of different views across community, but I think the negotiations will settle some of those issues.”
