page_title: Northern Territory
section_title: Aboriginal land councils
hierarchical_section_title: Northern Territory / Governance / Aboriginal land councils
caption_attribution_description: Australia: Aboriginal Culture 011
context_page_description: The Northern Territory is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. It shares borders with Western Australia to the west, South Australia to the south, and Queensland to the east. To the north, the territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago.
  The NT covers 1,349,129 square kilometres, making it the third-largest Australian federal division, and the 11th-largest country subdivision in the world. It is sparsely populated, with a population of only 244,761, fewer than half as many people as Tasmania.
  The archaeological history of the Northern Territory may have begun over 60,000 years ago when humans first settled this region of the Sahul Continent. Reportedly the Makassan traders began a relationship with the indigenous people of the Northern Territory around the trading of trepang from at least the 18th century. The coast of the territory was first seen by Europeans in the 17th century. The British were the first Europeans to attempt to settle the coastal regions.
context_section_description: Aboriginal land councils in the Northern Territory are groups of Aboriginal landowners, set up under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976.
caption: Aboriginal Australians own about 49% of the Northern Territory's land
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