Indigenous Land Reform Project
Research Director: Dr Leon Terrill
The Indigenous Land Reform Project looks at the introduction of land tenure reform in Indigenous communities across Australia.
More than 20 per cent of Australia is owned by Indigenous peoples under native title and statutory land rights schemes. As this map illustrates, most Indigenous land is situated in remote areas – with the largest areas being found in Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.
Over the last decade, Australian governments have introduced a series of reforms to the way that Indigenous land is owned and used. To date, the focus of the reforms has been on the land inside of residential communities.
The purpose of the Indigenous Land Reform Project is to improve understandings of these significant reforms. The Research Director, Dr Leon Terrill, is currently undertaking several research projects on the reforms and their consequences for Indigenous land owners and community residents.
This resource page provides some information and resources about the reforms.
General Publications and Resources:
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Dr Leon Terrill, ‘Township Leases and Economic Development in Northern Territory Aboriginal Communities’ (2017) 43(2) Monash University Law Review (Forthcoming)
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Ed Wensing, The Commonwealth’s Indigenous Land Tenure Reform Agenda: Whose Aspirations, and for What Outcomes? (AIATSIS research publication, July 2016)
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Dr Belinda Burbidge, Land Rights & Township Leasing (Native Title Newsletter, August 2016)
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Dr Terrill’s book - Beyond Communal and Individual Ownership: Indigenous Land Reform in Australia – was published by Routledge in late 2015
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Leon Terrill, 'Hernando de Soto and Empowerment through Land Tenure Reform' in Sean Brennan, Megan Davis, Brendan Edgeworth and Leon Terrill, Native Title From Mabo to Akiba: A Vehicle for Change and Empowerment? (Federation Press, 2015) 213.
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Leon Terrill 'The Language We Use to Debate Aboriginal Land Reform in Australia' (2014-15) 18(1) Australian Indigenous Law Review 24
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Kirsty Howey, ‘“Normalising” What? A Qualitative Analysis of Aboriginal Land Tenure Reform in the Northern Territory’ (2014-15) 18(1) Australian Indigenous Law Review 4
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Greg Marks, ‘Two Sides of the Same Coin: Outstations Policy and Land Tenure Reform’ (2014-15) 18(1) Australian Indigenous Law Review 44
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Central Land Council, ‘Land Reform in the Northern Territory: Evidence Not Ideology’ (Policy paper, October 2013)
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Leon Terrill, 'Five years on: Confusion, Illusion and Township Leasing on Aboriginal Land' (2011) 1 Property Law Review 160
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Leon Terrill, 'Indigenous Land Reform: An Economic or Bureaucratic Reform?' (2010) 7(17) Indigenous Law Bulletin 3
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Leon Terrill, 'The Days of the Failed Collective: Communal Ownership, Individual Ownership and Township Leasing in Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory' (2009) 32(3) University of New South Wales Law Journal 814
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'What is Township Leasing?' (2014) Indigenous Law Centre Research Brief
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Chapter Four: Indigenous Land Tenure Reform in Tom Calma, Native Title Report 2009 (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2009)