We congratulate our friends to the east of Gondwana Link. This week the Federal Court of Australia handed down a landmark determination for the Nullarbor’s Mirning people. This follows an 18 year legal battle for recognition of rights over their traditional land. Justice Robertson conducted a sitting of the Federal Court at Point Low on Tuesday, attended by many Mirning family groups who witnessed native title being granted over some 33,000 square kilometres of traditional land including 22,000 square kilometres of exclusive possession. Peter Price, Gondwana Link’s Great Western Woodlands Program Manager, attended the Determination ceremony on invitation of Mirning applicants and said afterwards ‘’It’s another significant chapter for Native Title rights in southern Australia. Through the native title process there is now Indigenous ownership covering a distance of some 1250 km from west of Esperance to the South Australian border”.

Peter’s photos, fresh from the Nullarbor, show the court in session, claimant and Elder John Graham being handed a copy of the determination by Justice Robertson, and Mirning descendants with Justice Robertson.
Wonderful stuff!