Court dismisses collective native title claim
ABC News Online
Feb. 5, 2007
The Federal Court has dismissed a native title claim over 160,000 square kilometres of land north of Kalgoorlie, in southern Western Australia.
The claim mainly involved the Wongatha group and another seven overlapping claims.
In handing down his decision, Justice Kevin Lindgren said the groups did not all have a similar cultural attachment to the land, and there was no way they could collectively prove such a connection.
But he left the door open for future claims, saying he believed some native title did exist on the area of land, but it would be likely to be limited to individuals or much smaller groups.
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