ONE of the major and long-running stories I covered in my time as a journalist at Byron Bay was the Native Title claim lodged over a wide area of coastal Crown land that stretched from Byron Bay to Broken Head.
It was lodged by sisters Lorna Kelly, Yvonne Graham, Linda Vidler and Dulcie Nicholls who long dreamed of one day returning to live on the land at Byron Bay where they had lived as children.
In practical terms, that dream began in late 1994 when three of the sisters – Lorna, Yvonne and Linda – lodged the claim on behalf of the Bundjalung people of Byron Bay (Arakwal). Dulcie joined the claim at a later stage.
With the wider community having little knowledge of what the claim entailed, there was a great deal of confusion, concern and fear-mongering about what it all meant and its possible impact on private property.
Almost 15 years down the track, the claim, apart from some legal nuts and bolts, was finalised – and the world didn’t cave in.
Linda’s daughter, Yvonne Stewart, who, at the time, was chairperson of both the Bundjalung of Byron Bay Arakwal Corporation and the Cape Byron Headland Trust and also the public face of the claim over the years, said she was ‘really glad’ the claim had been finalised.
Ms Stewart said it was ‘unfortunate’ the process had taken so long and that it had ‘taken in its toll on all of us’.
So what came out of that claim started all those years ago and the focus of many mediation sessions involving the claimants, the National Native Title Tribunal, the State Government, Byron Council and other stakeholders?
In 2000, the State Government entered into an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) with the Arakwal Corporation which, after being signed in 2001, led to the establishment of the Arakwal National Park with Cape Byron at its core.
The first such agreement of its kind in Australia, it also provided for Crown land near Cosy Corner to be transferred to the Arakwal Corporation for a cultural centre and tourist facility and there were also employment and co-management opportunities created for the claimants.
But most importantly for the Arakwal, it provided for Crown land in Ironbark Avenue near Byron Bay High School to be transferred to the Arakwal Corporation for housing.
The site is where the sisters lived as children in a semi-traditional lifestyle with their parents, Jimmy and Linda Kay.
At the time of lodging the claim in 1994, Lorna Kelly said the family had lived off the land and the ocean between Cape Byron and Seven Mile Beach. The sisters’ grandfather was a well-known Aborigine, Harry Bray, after whom Bray’s Hole at Broken Head was named.
In February 2007, a second ILUA agreement was confirmed which saw two blocks of Crown land at Wategos and the freehold of the Broken Head Caravan Park transferred to the corporation.
That transfer happened in 2009.
As was the case in the initial stages of the Native Title claim, there was some fear-mongering over the future of the two blocks of Crown land at upmarket Wategos Beach.
Ms Stewart said the corporation had appointed property management advisors to look at the best possible uses for the blocks.
The number one priority for the Arakwal was to get four houses built at Ironbark Avenue in memory of the sisters who initiated the claim.
A third Indigenous Land Use Agreement signed by the NSW Government in 2007 created a new 50ha reserve, the Ti Tree Lake Aboriginal Area (Taylors Lake) which encompassed forests and the lake sacred to Bundjalung women.
Ms Stewart said the Arakwal people were ‘really glad’ to see the Native Title claim come to a conclusion.
“We have worked our hardest to preserve our land,” she said. “We know our land will now be protected. We think we have protected Byron Bay quite well.”
IN May this year (2019) Federal Court judge, Justice Robertson, confirmed the Native Title sea rights of the Bundjalung People (Arakwal) of Byron Bay.
The claim was only the second in NSW to have native title sea rights recognised.
PHOTO: Arakwal sisters Lorna Kelly and Linda Vidler sign an Indigenous Land Use Agreement at Cape Byron with then NSW Premier, Bob Carr, watching on with Byron Council general manager, Ray Kent, deputy mayor Cr Lisa Christoffersen and mayor, Cr Ian Kingston.