arm v got, page-25

"Forgot to mention, no native title over the water."
Retrac

just out if interest found the following


http://www.nlc.org.au/html/land_sea.html

Some 87% of the Northern Territory coastline is Aboriginal-owned land.

Coastal or "Saltwater" Aboriginal people in the Top End of the Northern Territory have a strong attachment to "sea country". Connection to land does not stop at the water's edge. For saltwater people, the land and sea are one. There are sacred sites and dreaming tracks in and under the sea, just as there are on the land.


Sea Rights Not Addressed

The Aboriginal Land Rights Act does not address the issue of the rights to sea.

Similarly, in the High Court of Australia's Mabo decision on 3 June 1992, the judges said the Murray Islands in the Torres Strait were the traditional lands of the Indigenous Meriam people and they were entitled to possession and enjoyment of them - but the judgment did not make a ruling about native title over areas of sea. The subsequent 1993 Native Title Act also did not deal explicitly with the issue of native title over the seas.

However, Indigenous sea and fishing rights have been recognised in Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.

Pursuing Claims

The Northern Land Council is pursuing a number of claims to sea beds and waterways under the Land Rights Act and is testing in court the Act's application to the intertidal zone.

The Croker Island Seas native title claim was the first claim to the seas under the Native Title Act. This was a test case to establish the extent of native title rights to the sea in Australia.