A tract of country twice the size of Singapore has been formally recognised as native title land in a watershed win for Traditional Owners.
The Federal Court has confirmed native title rights over 170,827 hectares in far north Queensland's Cape York, in a decision Western Yalanji elders say guarantees their children and grandkids will always have a place on Country.
The ruling handed down by Chief Justice Debra Mortimer in Cairns on Friday is part of a decades-long legal campaign to secure recognition of traditional ownership across the peninsula after generations of dispossession.
It marks the 34th determination made under the Cape York United #1 claim, considered one of the largest undertaken in Australia.
This week alone it has enjoyed native title recognition spanning more than 388,712 hectares of Cape York thanks to the Western Yalanji claim, as well as an Eastern Kuku Yalanji determination made this week.
It ensures the Cape York United #1 claim is 91 per cent completed, leaving only a small fraction of the peninsula still to be resolved. Chief Justice Mortimer on Friday apologised for the time it had taken to reach the Western Yalanji determination.
''You have waited a long time for these determinations and I thank you for your patience with the system of native title,'' she said.
''It has been slow and it has been complicated, and I am sorry that it has taken so long.
"But what is happening today is that your property rights under your traditional law are being recognised, and they are rights against the whole world.''
Cape York Land Council acting chief executive Richie Ah Mat said the determination recognised that Western Yalanji people had maintained their connection, rights and responsibilities to Country under their traditional laws and customs.
''Today is about recognition, but it is also a tribute,'' Mr Ah Mat told AAP.
''It is a tribute to the remarkable elders and family leaders who took up this campaign for land rights more than 30 years ago.
“There is no place like Yalanji Country on this planet."
Cape York Land Council chair Clara Day said the decision fulfilled the dream of Elders and family leaders who came together at Lockhart River in 1990 to begin the long work of securing the return and recognition of their lands.
''They wanted their children and grandchildren to have the security of knowing where they belong, the authority to speak for their Country, and the opportunity to protect it and build a future on it,'' she said.
Elder Rose Snider said the determination was about returning to Country with family and passing knowledge to children.
''The good part is it's time to go back to Country with family and give my knowledge to the kids – how to hunt and fish, and sharing those things with our neighbours,'' she said.
The determination recognises exclusive native title over some areas and non‑exclusive native title across most of the determination area.
The determination recognises exclusive native title over some areas and non‑exclusive native title across most of the determination area.
Those non‑exclusive rights include access to Country, camping, hunting, fishing, gathering natural resources, protecting significant places, and conducting ceremony alongside existing pastoral, mining and other legal interests.
The Western Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC will continue as the prescribed body corporate, managing native title rights and interests on behalf of Western Yalanji people.
