The decisions in Miriuwung Gajerrong and Wilson v Anderson [9] have established the common law tests for extinguishment and the ease with which native title rights and interests can be permanently
extinguished by the creation of other interests on traditional land.
Then there is the real possibility that after all this the legal tests will be too difficult to satisfy and some or all of the native title rights claimed will have been
extinguished by the creation of non-Indigenous interests.
If native title is constructed as a weak title at common law it will be
extinguished by the creation of non-Indigenous interests and the culture that is sustained by that land will end.
Not exact matches
Even if native title claimants» relationship to their land withstands the «continuous connection'test for recognition, the court will, as a matter of law, determine whether the title has been
extinguished in any case
by the
creation of non-Indigenous interests (whether current or expired) over the same land.141
Thus they have capacity to control whether, or the extent to which, native title is
extinguished or impaired
by the
creation of these specified tenures.
However, it is as yet undecided
by the High Court whether the
creation of non-Indigenous interests over native title lands is capable of «suspending», rather than «
extinguishing» native title interests.
The NTA offers little further protection than that provided
by the common law to Aboriginal people whose interests have been affected, either impaired or
extinguished by the statutory or executive
creation of non-Indigenous interests prior to 1975.
It is the effect, or implication of the
creation of interests
by the Crown on native title rather than the actual intention of the Crown in the
creation of these interests that
extinguishes native title.
Subsection 11 (1) of the Act prohibits extinguishment that is contrary to the NTA, however if native title is
extinguished at common law
by the
creation of non-Indigenous rights, then in most instances, 144 it will not be revived
by the NTA.
Rather than fully implement the
extinguishing regime permitted
by the NTA, it limited the effect of complete extinguishment from the
creation of leases and scheduled interests identified in the confirmation provisions (excluding freehold) to those tenures still in force on 23 December 1996.
While the
creation of a mining lease
extinguishes the right of Indigenous people to utilise their resources on that land, a pastoral lease on the same land at a later time will further erode native title
by extinguishing the right of Indigenous people to exclude others from the land.