Establishment of Kakadu National Park

Background

Kakadu was established at a time when the Australian community was becoming more interested in the declaration of national parks for conservation and in recognising the land interests of Aboriginal people. A national park in the Alligator Rivers Region was proposed as early as 1965. Over the next decade several proposals for a major national park in the region were put forward by interested groups and organisations. One of these proposals first suggested the name ‘Kakadu’, after the Gagudju people, for the national park. ‘Kakadu’ was the original spelling of the word as given by the biologist and anthropologist W Baldwin Spencer in 1912.

In 1973, the Australian Government set up a Commission of Inquiry into Aboriginal land rights in the Northern Territory. This commission specially considered how to recognise Aboriginal people’s land interests while providing for conservation management of the land. The commissioner in charge of this inquiry, Mr Justice Woodward, concluded that: ‘It may be 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 and 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 Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Land Rights Act) was passed by the Commonwealth Parliament. The Land Rights 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.

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 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 declaration of the Park continues under the EPBC Act. 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).