Council registers interest in Native Title claim

MOUNT Gambier City Council has registered to become a party to proceedings in the Native Title claim lodged by the First Nations of the South East for an area encompassing the seven Limestone Coast councils.

Affected land in Mount Gambier will include parcels of crown land over which council is custodian or has care, control and management, comprising most of the Crater Lake Precinct, parts of Hastings Cunningham Reserve and Olympic Park and the perimeter of the Blue Lake.

The claim was lodged by around seven signed applicants who are the biological descendants of 11 ancestors from Mount Gambier, Kingston, Bordertown, Millicent and Penola and will give the applicants Native Title rights to hunt and fish on vacant crown land.

City Council will engage Norman Waterhouse Lawyers to represent council in conjunction with the other Limestone Coast councils on matters relating to the Native Title claim.