What are negotiated outcomes?
Negotiated outcomes are achieved through agreements between the NSW Government and Aboriginal groups regarding the return, exchange, management or use of land, among other things.
Other parties may also be involved in agreements. These agreements help achieve positive social, economic, cultural and environmental outcomes for communities.
Agreements which the NSW Government negotiates include Aboriginal Land Agreements (ALAs) under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 with local Aboriginal land councils (LALCS), and more. ALAs are a flexible mechanism used for the bulk resolution of claims and return of land to Aboriginal people.
ALAs are voluntary and only occur where LALCs choose to participate.
Orange Aboriginal Land Agreement
The Orange Aboriginal Land Agreement returns land to the Orange LALC and aims to ensure public land is managed and owned locally.
The outcomes from this negotiation aim to provide certainty about the future use of land, resolve existing Aboriginal land claims and achieve the most positive social, economic, cultural and environmental benefits for local communities.
The return of this land reflects the Crown land 2031 State Strategic Plan key priority to accelerate the realisation of Aboriginal land rights and native title in partnership with Aboriginal people.
This priority acknowledges that Aboriginal land rights and native title interests are key to reconciliation and achieving economic, social, cultural and environmental outcomes in NSW.
Crown Lands is currently transforming the way it delivers outcomes for Aboriginal people which incorporates a partnership approach to negotiating outcomes and solutions. Recent examples of this are the announcement at the Dungog mountain bike track and the delivery of the new Health service at Buronga, HealthOne. Significant progress has been made in improving the land claims process and outcomes.
As part of this approach Crown Lands has a number of Aboriginal Community Engagement Officers working closely with local Aboriginal land councils to better support outcomes for Aboriginal people.
Crown Lands will transfer about 86 hectares of Crown land to the Orange LALC. Some of these land parcels include:
- the Bloomfield Golf Club Driving Range, Bloomfield Hall, part of Bloomfield Golf Course, a small section of the Agricultural Research Station and a portion of Orange Racecourse.
To see the full list of land parcels involved in this transfer, download the Orange Land Parcel Transfer (PDF, 70 KB).
The Orange land transfers will benefit the people of Orange and Western NSW by supporting the creation of jobs, investment in the local health and education sectors, preservation of parklands and culturally significant sites, and opportunities for investment that can support local businesses and services.
Land transfers are also an opportunity for Crown Lands to work with Aboriginal landowners to co-design and co-manage strategies to unlock multiple benefits from land.
Land transfers in most instances will not result in significant changes to most existing tenures (licenses or leases), the tenures will simply be reissued by the LALC. Tenures will then need to be renewed and/or renegotiated when they each come up for renewal.