The Gkuthaarn and Kukatj people of the Gulf of Carpentaria have won their eight-year native title battle,
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In a Federal Court consent determination on Tuesday September 29, the Gkuthaarn and Kukatj people were recognised as the traditional owners of more than 16,000 square kilometres of land in the Normanton region.
The ruling means the Gkuthaarn and Kukatj people can now legally fish and hunt on pastoral land.
Pastoralists still have the right to run cattle and to operate their business while native title holders now have legal rights to practise their culture and their cultural ceremonies on the land in a manner compatible with pastoral properties.
The area covered includes lands west of the Norman River including Normanton as far as the Leichhardt River.
One unidentified landholder fought the claim and the traditional owners have put in place an Indigenous land use agreement (ILUA) instead of recognition of the native title for that landholder.
The Gulf saw some of the bloodiest conflict during the 19th century wars when pastoralists took control of native lands.
Kurtijar elder Charles Bynoe refers to seven Aboriginal groups in the area when Normanton was established in the 1870s and traditional boundaries were fractured by frontier violence that accompanied the establishment of pastoralism in the Gulf.
By 1920, many were removed to reserves and missions and those who remained lived in camps on the outskirts of the town. The Gkuthaarn and Kukatj people lived in camps on the south-west edge of the town, while northern groups such as the Kurtijar occupied camps north of the Norman River.
In 2004, the Queensland Government and the Kurtijar and Gkuthaarn people entered into an ILUA which required that Native Title be surrendered over a small area of land at Karumba to facilitate the Century Mine Port facility.
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