Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people maintain a distinctive cultural, spiritual, physical and economic relationship with their land and waters.

By 2030, a 15% increase in:

• Australia’s land mass subject to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s legal rights or interests (Target 15A)
• Australia’s sea waters subject to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s legal rights or interests (Target 15B).

Number of Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUAs) on the Register of Indigenous Land Use Agreements

There are two measures for this indicator.

Measure 1 is defined as the number of ILUAs on the Register of Indigenous Land Use Agreements, by type of agreement, at 30 June.

Measure 2 is defined as the proportion of all land that is covered by ILUAs:

Numerator – the total area of land covered by registered ILUAs, at 30 June

Denominator – total land area

and is presented as a percentage.

National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020

13 November 2024

Contextual information

A high or increasing number is desirable.

Name: Register of Indigenous Land Use Agreements

Frequency: Annual

Documentation (links): http://www.nntt.gov.au/ILUAs

Provider name: National Native Title Tribunal

Provider area: Native Title

2020

2024

State and territory and Australia.

Counting rules

An ILUA is a voluntary agreement between native title parties and other people or bodies about the use and management of areas of land and/or waters.

An ILUA can be made over areas where:

• native title has been determined to exist in at least part of the area
• a native title claim has been made
• no native title claim has been made.

There are three types of ILUAs:

• area agreements can be made where there is no registered native title body corporate (RNTBC) for the entire agreement area
• body corporate agreements can be made where there is one or more RNTBCs for the entire agreement area, other than for any part of the area where it has been determined that native title does not exist
• alternative procedure agreements can be made where there is at least one representative body for the area or at least one RNTBC in the area, but not where there are RNTBCs in relation to all of the area. There are currently no alternative procedure agreements recorded on the register.

An RNTBC is a prescribed body corporate nominated by native title holders to represent them and manage their native title rights and interests once a determination that native title exists has been made.

Measure 2

Land area is in square kilometres (sq km) and has been calculated using GDA2020 (EPSG 7844).

Proportion of land area is based on jurisdiction area sourced from Geoscience Australia (1993). (http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/national-location-information/dimensions/area-of-australia-states-and-territories).

Data for the Australian Capital Territory includes Jervis Bay.

The proportion of land area is based on land area covered by ILUAs. Sea area covered by ILUAs is provided for context.

For more information see: About Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUAs) (nntt.gov.au)

The data on ILUAs may include a greater number of determinations than those provided under ‘National Native Title Register (NNTR)’ due to the following:

• the determination may not take effect until a certain condition is met, such as the registration of an ILUA or the nomination of a Prescribed Body Corporate
• the determination may be in the administrative process of being registered on the NNTR.