Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002:front:0:p10
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 28079–30881

that a scheme of Aboriginal title, combined with national park status and joint management would prove acceptable to all interests' (Woodward 1973).

In the early 1970s, significant uranium deposits were discovered in the Alligator Rivers Region at Ranger, Jabiluka and Koongarra. A formal proposal to develop the Ranger deposit was submitted to the Australian Government in 1975. The Government established the Ranger Uranium Environmental Inquiry to investigate the proposal, focusing on environmental issues and the social impact on Aboriginal people.

During the time the inquiry was held, the Land Rights Act was passed by the Commonwealth Parliament. The Act allowed the commission set up to conduct the Ranger Inquiry to determine the merits of a claim to traditional Aboriginal ownership of land in the Alligator Rivers Region. This was the first claim heard under the Land Rights Act.

Figure 2: Kakadu National Park

The Ranger Inquiry tried to work out a compromise between the problems of conflicting and competing land uses, including Aboriginal people living on the land, establishing a national park, uranium mining, tourism and pastoral activities in the Alligator Rivers Region. In August 1977, the Australian Government responded to the recommendations of the Ranger Inquiry. It accepted almost all the recommendations including those about granting Aboriginal title to areas in the Alligator Rivers Region and establishing Kakadu National Park in stages.

An arrangement was made for the traditional owners to lease land granted to them to the Australian Government for management as a national park. Mining would not be permitted in the park but was provided for on areas excluded from the park.

Establishment of the park and the park as Aboriginal land

Kakadu National Park was declared under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975 (NPWC Act) in three stages between 1979 and 1991. The NPWC Act was replaced by the EPBC Act in 2000. The park continues as a Commonwealth reserve under the EPBC Act pursuant to the Environmental Reform (Consequential Provisions) Act 1999, which deems the park to have been declared for the following purposes:

    * the preservation of the area in its natural condition

    * the encouragement and regulation of the appropriate use, appreciation and enjoyment of the area by the public.

Each stage of the park includes Aboriginal land under the Land Rights Act that is leased to the Director of National Parks (the Director), or land that is subject to a claim to traditional ownership under the Land Rights Act (see Figure 3).

Most of the land that was to become part of Stage One of Kakadu National Park was granted to the Kakadu Aboriginal Land Trust under the Land Rights Act in August 1978 and, in November 1978, the Land