Long fight over for traditional owners
LAND south of Townsville has been granted to its indigenous custodians after an almost two- decade fight.
The State Government granted the Birriah People title deeds to six parcels of land between Mackay, Charters Towers and Townsville at the weekend, totalling 560ha.
Palm Island man Algon Walsh Jr said it was an emotional and proud day for the Birriah People, whom he said were forcibly removed from the Collinsville area last century.
Mr Walsh’s father Algon Walsh Sr was one of the original applicants when the Aboriginal Land Act claim was lodged in 1998.
Mr Walsh Sr died the following year and his sons took up the baton.
“I think he’d be really happy. I’m pretty sure he’s up there smiling down on me and my brothers. Their efforts weren’t in vain,” Mr Walsh Jr said.
Mr Walsh Jr said his father’s mother Annie Walsh, nee Barker, and generations before her were born in the same area, on the banks of a creek at Strathmore Station.
“My grandmother had always told him stories of her country. She told him where she was born, where her grandmother was born, where her great- grandmother was born,” he said.
Mr Walsh Jr said his grandmother’s family were moved in 1914, when she was three, to Palm Island.
“That was around the time of the First World War and the state was allocating land to the returned soldiers for services to the country,” he said.
Other Birriah families were sent elsewhere – to towns such as Woorabinda, near Rockhampton, and Hope Vale, near Cooktown.
Mr Walsh Jr said he felt a strong spiritual connection with the Birriah People’s country.
“I grew up in the modern world as well. I’m a Roman Catholic by religion, but when I go back out on country, I’m not thinking about those things,” he said.
“I really go back and I think about my elders, the people from my country. All my aches and pains just leave my body, I know I’m connected there, I know I belong there.”
The Birriah People’s native title rights to the land were formally recognised in March last year.
Two of the parcels of land are in the Burdekin Dam area, which was an important meeting place for the Birriah People. “We’ve lost a lot of our culture because of the dam. It destroyed a lot of our history and artefacts and stories, it’s all under water,” Mr Walsh Jr said.
The Birriah Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC is yet to decide what it will do with the land.
“Once we get down there and have a good look at what’s available to us and what we can do, there probably will be an opportunity there to maybe build a museum or a keeping place for our cultural heritage,” Mr Walsh Jr said.
“Maybe a retreat for our elders to go down there and practise our customs on country and just reconnect and have that peace.”
State Development and Natural Resources and Mines Minister Dr An- thony Lynham said the Birriah People had been granted inalienable freehold ownership of the land.
“Ownership of this land allows the Birriah People to maintain the cultural and natural values of their traditional land and consider future economic development opportunities such as employment, tourism and training,” he said.