Australia's native title map expanded again on 14 August 2026, when the Federal Court recognised native title over more than 170,000 hectares of northern Queensland.
Chief Justice Debra Mortimer made a consent determination recognising the Western Yalanji People as native title holders over approximately 170,827 hectares of Cape York. The determination forms part of the much larger Cape York United #1 claim, originally filed in 2014.
The determination does not give precisely the same rights over every part of the area. In designated areas, the Western Yalanji have exclusive native title rights to possess, occupy and enjoy the land. Elsewhere the rights are non-exclusive and coexist with other legally recognised interests. These include rights of access and travel, camping, hunting, fishing, gathering natural resources, conducting cultural and ceremonial activities, holding meetings and protecting culturally significant places. Mineral and petroleum rights are specifically excluded.
The determination was reached by consent rather than following a contested trial. The Western Yalanji parties, Queensland government and other respondents agreed upon the terms, and the Western Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation is to manage the recognised native title rights and interests.
Another determination on the same day recognised Northern Kaanju native title over approximately 60,000 hectares around Orchid Creek. That land had been excluded from an earlier 2022 determination while negotiations concerning competing interests were completed.
These decisions are another stage in a much larger transformation of the legal geography of Cape York. According to figures reported in connection with the determinations, 23 successful determinations over the past two decades have resulted in native title recognition across about 5.5 million hectares, or roughly 45 per cent of Cape York Peninsula.
The national figures are considerably more striking.
There are several different statistics in circulation, and they should not be confused. A Federal Court report records that, at 30 June 2025, 652 registered native title determinations covered approximately 4.235 million square kilometres, equivalent to 55.1 per cent of Australia's land mass. However, that figure includes 124 determinations in which native title was found not to exist. It therefore cannot properly be described as 55.1 per cent of Australia being held under native title.
A better indication of the area where native title actually exists comes from National Native Title Tribunal information reported in 2025. Approximately 15.4 per cent of Australia's land mass was subject to exclusive native title and approximately another 31 per cent to non-exclusive native title. Taken together, this puts land on which native title exists at roughly 46 per cent of the Australian continent.
The distinction matters. Exclusive native title may include a right to possess and occupy land to the exclusion of others. Non-exclusive native title does not ordinarily allow native title holders simply to exclude other lawful users. Instead, recognised traditional rights may coexist with pastoral leases, Crown interests, infrastructure and other property interests. These can include rights relating to access, hunting, fishing, ceremonies and other traditional activities.
There is also a broader category used by governments: land subject to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal "rights or interests." This includes more than native title alone. The Productivity Commission's July 2026 Closing the Gap report calculated that 4,421,946 square kilometres, or 57.6 per cent of Australia, was subject to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal rights or interests as at June 2025. The comparable figure had been 50.9 per cent in 2020.
That broader statistic therefore should not be reported as meaning Indigenous Australians own 57.6 per cent of Australia. The Productivity Commission itself distinguishes native title, which may be exclusive or non-exclusive, from other forms of Indigenous land ownership and control. Its figures show that approximately 1,239,990 square kilometres, or 16.1 per cent of Australia, was owned or controlled through exclusive Indigenous rights outside native title in 2025.
Indigenous Land Use Agreements add another layer. ILUAs are negotiated agreements between native title parties and governments, companies or other parties concerning land and water use. They may exist where native title has been determined, where a claim remains unresolved, or even where no native title claim has been lodged.
At 30 June 2025 registered ILUAs covered approximately 2.696 million square kilometres, or 35.1 per cent of the Australian land mass, although much of this territory overlaps areas already included in native title and other Indigenous land statistics. The percentages consequently cannot simply be added together.
Nor has the claims process finished.
The National Native Title Tribunal's current statistics list 195 native title applications before the system. These include different classes of applications rather than 195 straightforward successful claimant cases waiting to be approved, so the number should be treated as a measure of the continuing workload rather than as 195 certain future grants.
Large unresolved proceedings remain particularly important in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Cape York United itself demonstrates how one very large claim can progressively be divided into individual determinations over many years. The Western Yalanji decision of August 2026 arose from a claim lodged twelve years earlier.
Claims are not restricted to sparsely populated desert country. The continuing Quandamooka proceedings in south-east Queensland cover approximately 530 square kilometres and extend across areas of Brisbane and the Redland Coast. The proceeding has involved disputes over thousands of council-owned or managed parcels, although the native title claim pursued against particular developed parcels is much narrower and private freehold property is not being claimed.
There are nevertheless important structural limits on how far native title can spread. Native title cannot simply be recreated wherever it has previously been legally extinguished. Much privately held freehold land and many areas affected by earlier grants of exclusive possession therefore stand outside the ordinary reach of native title recognition. This is one reason why the remaining growth is likely to be concentrated heavily in Crown land, pastoral country, reserves, remote regions and waters rather than suburban freehold Australia.
What might the map look like by 2100?
Any figure extending 74 years into the future is necessarily speculative. The recent trend nevertheless provides some boundaries. The broader measure of Indigenous legal rights and interests rose from 50.9 per cent of Australia's land mass in 2020 to 57.6 per cent in 2025. The Australian government's Closing the Gap framework expressly has a target of increasing the land mass covered by such rights and interests by 15 per cent relative to the 2020 baseline by 2030, and the Productivity Commission says that target is presently on course to be reached.
It would be misleading simply to project the recent rate forward in a straight line. Doing that would eventually produce something approaching 100 per cent, but the legal barriers created by extinguishment and existing tenure make such an outcome highly improbable under the current Native Title Act.
For native title itself, rather than the much broader category of Indigenous rights and interests, a reasonable long-range estimate on present legal settings might be somewhere around 60 to 70 or even 80 per cent of Australia's land mass by 2100! The present figure is approximately 46 per cent. Continuing determinations in large remote regions could add substantial territory, but as the unresolved claimable areas decline, each additional percentage point should become progressively harder to obtain.
The broader category of land affected by some form of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander legal right, interest, ownership, management agreement or similar arrangement could eventually be considerably higher. It is already 57.6 per cent. Depending upon future legislation, agreements and land-management arrangements, a figure somewhere in the range of 75 to 85 per cent + by 2100 would not be implausible. That is an extrapolation rather than an official government forecast. It could be even higher, or, unlikely, lower.
What can be stated without speculation is that the process begun following Mabo and the Native Title Act 1993 is nowhere near merely historical. More than three decades later, new determinations continue to be made, old claims continue to be broken into additional determinations, new applications remain before the courts and tribunal, and the proportion of Australia affected by legally recognised Indigenous rights and interests continues to increase.
As of the middle of the 2020s, roughly 46 per cent of Australia's land mass has native title recognised over it in exclusive or non-exclusive form, while the broader governmental measure of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal rights and interests has reached 57.6 per cent. The Queensland decisions of 14 August are another two additions to a map that is still being drawn.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/aboriginal-groups-granted-native-title-recognition-over-170000-hectares-in-queensland-6075202