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SYDNEY - The rights of Aborigines to hunt, fish and profit from a vast area of pristine rainforest and national parks is to be recognised in one of Australia's largest indigenous land deals.
The Githabul tribe's historic links with a subtropical region of northern New South Wales will be acknowledged in an agreement drawn up with the state Government. The area, which adjoins the border with Queensland, consists of 19 national parks and state forests covering 6000sq km.
Aborigines will be free to gather freshwater turtles, kangaroos, echidnas and witchetty grubs, and will assume a much greater role in the running of the parks.
The native title agreement, the largest on Australia's eastern seaboard, will provide more jobs for indigenous people but will not affect the right of other Australians to access the land.
Warren Mundine, the chief executive of NSW Native Title Services, which funded the claim, said the deal would give Aborigines the sort of rights enjoyed by Maori.
"It's a Maori-type agreement, a bit like the ones they have giving them control of forests and fisheries. It will give real jobs and provide a solid economic base for the community. People tend to think of Aborigines as being in the north and that Aboriginal culture has been wiped out in the south-east. The Githabul speak their language and have their culture.
"When I go home people are still eating kangaroo and echidna, theyre still going out to collect plants," said Mundine, himself a member of a related group, the Bundjalung nation.
Gathering bush tucker will be limited to certain times of the year and endangered wildlife will remain off the menu.
Hikers, campers and fishermen will still be able to enjoy the national parks, some of which are World Heritage-listed.
"What does change is that there's a much greater involvement of the Aboriginal people of the area, in the way that country is managed into the future," Dr Tony Fleming, the acting director of the NSW Environment Department, told the ABC.
Having the Githabul much more closely involved in the day-to-day running of national parks would bring benefits. "I think for a lot of our visitors to national parks, it adds a huge dimension to their experience. They'll get access to the knowledge of the Githabul people, the interpretation of this part of the state from an Aboriginal perspective, and we as land managers learn a lot from Aboriginal people about how to look after these sorts of places."
The native title claim stops at the Queensland border because the Queensland Government has refused for a decade to entertain any Aboriginal claim. As a result Aborigines will have unfettered access to the lower slopes of a mountain, on the New South Wales side of the border, but not the summit, which is in Queensland.
