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Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council

Aboriginal land use planning

Mambo Wetlands Reserve at Salamander Bay, NSW. Credit: NSW Department of Planning and Environment

The Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council is an incorporated body constituted under the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983. Its objectives are to improve, protect and foster the best interests of all Aboriginal people within the land council’s area and other people who are members of the land council.

The Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council covers parts of the Central Coast, with boundaries stretching from Catherine Hill Bay in the north, Hawkesbury River in the south, the Pacific Ocean in the east and Watagan mountains in the west.

Aboriginal Land Rights Act

The Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council land was granted under the provisions made in the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 to compensate Aboriginal people for the historic dispossession of land, and in recognition of their ongoing disadvantage.

Land councils are charitable statutory bodies corporate, whereby the financial proceeds of a land council’s operations must be reinvested into improving, protecting and fostering the best interests of all Aboriginal people within the land council’s area.

Tessellated Rock Pavement in the Bouddi National Park between Patonga and Pearl Beach on the Central Coast of NSW, Australia.

In February 2019, the NSW Government released the Darkinjung Delivery Framework, a set of pioneering planning measures to assist Darkinjung better utilise their land.

Bushland at Kariong in the Central Coast region of NSW.

A planning proposal has been prepared by the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council and seeks to rezone land to delivery up to 50 new homes and a new pocket park close to existing homes in Kariong.

Bushland at Dungog Common, NSW. Credit: NSW Shannon Richmond / Department of Planning and Environment

A planning proposal from the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council for a site on Reeves Street, Somersby.