1. What is a small miner? -- 2. What is native title? -- 3. Terra nullius -- 4. In the wake of Wik -- 5. Holding on -- 6. Carting out gear -- 7. One Nation involvement -- 8. Native Title Act section 29 -- 9. The native title negotiator -- 10. Compensation -- 11. National Native Title Tribunal mediation -- 12. Arbitration -- 13. Area Indigenous Land Unit Agreement photographs -- 14. The rush -- 15. The right to negotiate -- 16. Dividing up the booty -- 17. Alternate state provisions and the backlog -- 18. The right to re-negotiate -- 19. The double cross -- 20. Mines Department ILUA -- 21. Join as a respondent -- 22. NNTT and the Federal Court -- 23. The new start -- 24. Back in the lion's den -- 25. Drafting wars -- 26. Conclusion
Summary
"The grant of almost all mining tenure Australia wide was 'frozen' on 23rd December 1996 after the Wik High Court decision and remains 'frozen' to this day. This government action completely caught out the traditional small miners. This is the story of one of those small miners. What started out as an attempt to get his application for a mining lease granted by the Queensland State Government, turned into an attempt to get all small mining tenure granted by developing a number of Indigenous Land Use Agreements that covered all Aboriginal concerns and all types of Mining Tenure within the vast North Queensland Land Council Aboriginal Corporation area. This attempt over a five and a half year period was constantly thwarted by the continuous manipulations of a number of key players, and an unworkable Act of Parliament."
