Native Title Services Corporation (NTSCORP), the native title service provider for the state, will hold a meeting in Narooma this weekend to discuss the filing of a new application.

The proposed region stretches from Bundeena in the north to south of Eden, west towards Braidwood and includes sections of the ocean off the east coast. 

It currently covers about 14,000 square kilometres, but the final extent of the claim will be determined by the claimants at the meeting. 

While Eden Local Aboriginal Land Council land and sea country coordinator Les Kosez is not attending the weekend’s meeting – CEO BJ Cruse was planning to attend as a local representative –  he planned to keep an eye on proceedings.

“I’m leaving it to our more wise heads. The old fellas can take care of that,’ Mr Kosez said, adding he had mixed feelings about the claim.

“Any native title over this area has the potential to cause a lot of division in the community. 

“So it has to be handled in a very cautious manner. It has to be remembered that there are a lot of different connections to this country, and they all have to be respected.

“But at the same time I applaud the effort of the people, for taking proactive steps in trying to have a more recognised and active voice in the decision making processes affecting this country.”

CEO of NTSCORP Natalie Rotumah said the claim had been requested by South Coast Indigenous Australians who asserted a traditional connection to the area.

“Recognition of native title will allow the traditional owners of the South Coast to continue practising their culture on some types of crown land and reserves,” she said. 

She said determinations have little impact on the wider community. 

“Other validly held rights in land are not obstructed by the recognition of native title,” Ms Rotumah said.   

“It has already been decided by the Federal Court that native title is extinguished by land held privately and many types of leasehold, for example.” 

If the claim is authorised on the weekend, a native title application will be lodged with the Federal Court.  

Ms Rotumah said some claims in the past have taken 20 years to finalise, which was “clearly unfair”.

“It may still take five years for the claim to be resolved,” she said. 

The area in question stretches from Bundeena to south of Eden, covering about 450km of NSW coastline and extending inland close to Braidwood, including “lands, waters and seas”.

NTSCORP said the agenda of this weekend’s meeting was to “discuss the background to this proposed new native title determination application and review native title law and processes”, including a review of anthropological and historical research, and discussions about the identity of the claim group, conditions to be imposed and and desired outcomes of the native title application.

Descendants of identified families, such as Chapman, Dixon, Walker and Nixon families, that assert native title rights are invited to attend the meeting.