Indigenous water rights in Australia

Indigenous rights in Australia have undergone enormous transition since the groundbreaking decision in Mabo vs. Queensland in the Australian High Court. This paper explores these changes with a particular emphasis on Aboriginal water rights—an important, and more complicated, corollary to land rights. Mabo opened many possibilities that Aboriginals could claim water rights for everything from irrigation to fishing and spiritual uses. Since 2000 claims of this nature have been made in the federal court system and have challenged the total scope of water law on this the driest inhabited continent on earth. Water law in Australia is primarily a function of state government and these policies have had differential impact on Aboriginal rights which will be explored in this paper.

► We examine the current situation of indigenous ownership and management of inland and ground water in Australia.
► The focus lies on the Native title rate as a source of recognition of water rights for indigenous peoples.
► We find that there have been some reforms in respect to water rights for Aborigines in Australia since the 1992 Mabo decision.
► However, Australian Aborigines have remained disenfranchised from the “goods” of the resources, which in pre-European times nurtured their cultures.
► By examining the water situation in Australian regions, we conclude that water equity, a basic human right, still does not exist for Aborigines.