The legislation provides that the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council is responsible for paying the rates owed by local land councils outstanding for more than twelve months. Most Aboriginal people in New South Wales live in ordinary Local Government Authority areas. In Victoria, the only land granted to Aboriginal people under Victorian legislation is that at Lake Tyers and Framlingham, under the Aboriginal Lands Act 1970. Two other areas, Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest, were granted under Commonwealth legislation in 1987. The legislation refers principally, however, only to tenure and not to who is eligible, an issue that was raised in relation to Lake Tyers in the Report of the Inquiry into the Death of Arthur Moffatt, since all but a limited number of families with links to the area were excluded.
All areas remain, therefore, under normal local government legislation.
Hence all Victorian Aboriginal people live in ordinary Local Government Authority areas. Both Lake Tyers and Framlingham, through separate bodies, pay rates to their respective shire councils. The situation in Queensland is quite distinct. The 1979 Act created Aurukun and Mornington Island as Shires on a mainstream local government model. The Deeds of Grant in Trust in effect provide inalienable freehold title to the Community Council area.