Tenure is the system for determining rights to use and enjoy land. Land tenure is a key contributor to the unusual legal and service delivery arrangements in remote Aboriginal communities and town-based reserves. Appropriate land tenure facilitates capital investment by confirming ownership and enabling the transfer and mortgaging of property. Equally, unsuitable land tenure can stymie development.

The underlying tenure for about 180 of the 274 remote communities, all 37 town-based reserves, and the approximately 11,000 people living in those places, is either a Crown reserve or unallocated Crown land. 

Most of the relevant Crown reserves are held by a single statutory authority, the Aboriginal Lands Trust (ALT), under the Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority Act 1972 (WA). Since the 1996 Bonner Report, the State Government’s policy has been to divest the ALT estate to appropriate Aboriginal land holders. However, few parcels have been successfully divested, and there are significant, interrelated barriers to the divestment, including:
 

• often, there is no entity willing or able to accpet the appropriate land tenure
• the reasons for, or effect of, changing the tenure is unclear
• substantial current or future liabilities on the estate
• difficulties resolving native title issues (such as the absence of a registered claim, or that current residents may not be the native title holders) or negotiating with native title holders
• lengthy (up to 99 year) leases granted over the estate prior to the Bonner Report, which restrict the ALT’s ability to take key steps towards divestment.

Any changes to land tenure arrangements would need to comply with Native Title Act 1993 (Cwlth) processes, and involve negotiations with relevant native title holders or applicants, as well as existing tenure holders and residents. Previous State Government experiences suggest such negotiations can take many years.

The State Government is considering policy and funding options to streamline arrangements for Aboriginal individuals or corporations that want to use the ALT estate more productively and take responsibility for relevant land parcels.