A sensitive Cape York freehold property is expected to be passed back to the traditional Aboriginal owners tomorrow (Monday) under a purchase agreement from Lloyd’s Bank.
The case of the Line Hill property follows two other major land-rights/development disputes on Cape York: one mining the other tourist.
Two Aboriginal representatives, Rodney Accoom and Fred Moses, with their lawyer John Bottoms are on their way to Sydney to sign the purchase agreement.
Mr Bottoms said yesterday that in view of Mabo and of previous court proceedings he was pleased that Lloyd’s Bank, the mortgagee in possession, was able to negotiate with the traditional owners for a purchase agreement.
The 3000-hectare property was the subject of protracted court proceedings over development proposals from 1989 to 1991. Aboriginal owners of the adjacent Lockhart River community objected to tourist development on what they considered their land. The land is zoned rural. The court proceedings prevented any rezoning for development sites. Under one proposal, a carpark was to be built over the last active borrah ground on the east coast.
When the court stopped the rezoning, the owners went in to liquidation and Lloyd’s Bank went in to possession.
The property has a unimproved capital value of $500,000. The Aboriginal group is buying it for something more than that.
Earlier this month, the Queensland Government blocked a proposed sub-division and sale of an environmentally sensitive Cape York property over which Aboriginal communities had also made some claim.
The Line Hill property has been advertised by tender. Advertisements have cited its 8km of silica-white beaches and the fact it is surrounded by Iron Range National Park and overlooks Lloyd Island which is fringed by reefs. However, it has no electricity or water services and is 765 kilometres by road (mostly gravel) from Cairns.
The Aboriginal community at Lockhart River had always expressed their concern that the land might be sold to a third party.
The Member for Leichhardt, Peter Dodd, has said Lloyd’s willingness to negotiate with the traditional owners in the Year of Indigenous People could only improve the bank’s corporate image.