A war of words has erupted in a tiny outback town where locals claim they have been blindsided by plans to hand over “95 per cent” of their community to an Aboriginal corporation as freehold.
Toobeah, a town of around 30 residents in the Darling Downs region on the border with NSW, nearly 400 kilometres southwest of Brisbane, has emerged as the centre of the latest fight over Indigenous land rights following the failed Voice referendum.
Residents claim they were not consulted on discussions between the Goondiwindi Regional Council and the Queensland Labor government to hand over the 220-hectare Toobeah Reserve to the Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (BNTAC).
“The Goondiwindi Regional Council and the Queensland government, in conjunction with the Bigambul Aboriginal Corporation, have been doing a plan to give away all of the crown land around our town,” said Michael Offerdahl, 38, who owns the Toobeah Hotel.
“Our town common, rodeo ground, town hall, town dump. We’ve only got like 12 to 14 houses in our town, we don’t have sewerage, potable water, anything. They’ve been doing this plan up, it’s all been secret, no community consultation.”
Toobeah Reserve, which also houses a pipe bringing water to the town, has long been used as a recreational area by residents despite officially being gazetted for use only by livestock.
“They’re not just taking a reserve, it’s 95 per cent of our town — whether it’s gazetted in the appropriate fashion or not doesn’t really matter,” Mr Offerdahl said.
“Historically for 115 years these have been parts of our town. The hotel was built in 1911. No one in the Bigambul tribe lives in Toobeah, they’re based in Brisbane. Historically they were in this area but not specifically in Toobeah.”
But Goondiwindi Mayor Lawrence Springborg has accused residents of misrepresenting the situation. “[Saying] 95 per cent of the town, it’s just completely not true,” he said. “The reserve is not the town.”
Cr Springborg also accused the locals in Toobeah of illegally using the reserve.
“People have been saying what about recreational use of the reserve,” he said.
“We’ve been able to identify there is no broad recreational use, so any broad recreational use has been unlawful because it’s a specific-purpose reserve for the camping and watering of stock only. People have used it, we’ve turned a blind eye to it.”
The Bigambul people have been recognised as native title holders over the majority of the Goondiwindi region following a 2016 federal court decision.
In 2021 the BNTAC applied to take control of Toobeah Reserve as freehold land under section 33 of Queensland’s Aboriginal Land Act 1991.
Only a few locations in Queensland’s far north around Cape York are currently designated as Aboriginal freehold, according to The Courier-Mail.
Aboriginal freehold is a “form of collective title where once it’s transferred you cannot sell it, you can’t mortgage it, you can’t transfer it but you can lease it”, Cr Springborg explained.
“For an Aboriginal group of people they need to be able to demonstrate a high threshold of continuing connection to that land, which they have, then once they’ve met that there’s a process they have to go through,” he said.
“The government have contacted us as trustees of the land because we have an interest as we have infrastructure on it. I suspect if we didn’t there probably wouldn’t have been too much consultation.”
Cr Springborg said the council’s role had also been misrepresented.
“The council’s the trustee, we get caught in the middle,” he said.
“The state approaches us and asks, ‘What’s your opinion on the transfer?’ We don’t own the land, it’s like asking a renter their views. We said if there is going to be a transfer there needs to be a protection of the community’s water, the stock route needs to be carved out, and there should be negotiations to transfer some of the land for future town expansion. That’s been our involvement in it. We have no power to stop it, it’s the Minister’s decision ultimately.”
The Mayor said it was “widely known” that the BNTAC first applied for joint trusteeship over the reserve four years ago. “The process then transferred into a freehold application in 2021 which carries with it confidentiality,” he said.
“Unfortunately there is a privacy provision that exists with virtually all government dealings, not just Indigenous title. I’ve got no doubt for some people they didn’t know about this until earlier this year. Our view is these decisions should be in open meetings.”
Cr Springborg added that the native title holders had so far “been open” to potential transfer of some of the land for future town expansion but “if this keeps going” — referring to the public campaign — “we could end up with nothing of what’s been talked about”.
“The town has no capacity to expand,” he said. “There’s heaps of this reserve land, it completely surrounds the town. The state can’t give the land over without the support of the Indigenous people.”
Mr Offerdahl, who has lived in Toobeah since he was a child and has advocated for improvements to town infrastructure, said while “I had a bit of an inkling stuff was going on” the rest of the town only found out about the proposal when the January 24 council minutes were released.
“We’ve been trying to work with the Bigambul people because we wanted to tell the history of the area — theirs, ours — but they just don’t want a bar of it,” he said.
The issue then attracted the attention of national conservative figures including One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson and Nationals Senator Matt Canavan.
“We brought 150 people to the first meeting and they s**t their pants,” he said. “Pauline Hanson came out. We never had eight people turn up to a meeting in Toobeah before.”
He claimed the council was “acting on our behalf” while keeping locals in the dark.
“When the council submits this application, the state government considers that the community consulted,” he said.
“But our council told us they weren’t allowed to consult the community because of the confidentiality. It’s the most bizarre set of circumstances I’ve ever seen. They’re basically using the legislation to drive their agenda. They want to get freehold land into the Aboriginal corporations as part of the treaty process.”
A Change.org petition started this week by Mr Offerdahl titled “Help stop 95 per cent of Toobeah Queensland being transferred to Aboriginal freehold!” has attracted more than 1000 signatures.
“It took 70 per cent of Queensland voting No to division by race to make the Queensland Liberal National Party (LNP) change their position and withdraw support for treaty,” the petition said.
“It would appear from the LNP’s silence at this moment that they may well still support the treaty process.”
Mr Offerdahl said “we’ve got no idea” what the BNTAC planned to do with the land.
“In the Local Housing Action Plan it suggests they want to build social housing and have access to funds to do so but don’t have access to freehold land,” he said.
In January, the Goondiwindi Regional Council released its state government-backed Local Housing Action Plan, which outlines council initiatives to ease pressures in regional Queensland’s tightest rental market.
The document states that the BNTAC has “capacity to deliver social housing for the area, ultimately empowering home ownership”.
“BNATC have access to funding for the build of new dwellings, however, are seeking land to commence activities,” it said. “Prefer economies of scale, but can start with one residential lot.”
Mr Canavan on Tuesday wrote to Scott Stewart, Queensland’s Resources and Critical Minerals Minister, highlighting residents’ concerns “about the lack of community consultation”.
“The Toobeah Reserve is considered by residents as a town common,” he wrote.
“It is the only easily accessible nature recreation area for the town. The lack of community consultation around the proposed transference has understandably devastated this small community. There appears to be an absence of any consultative process with the Toobeah community regarding their continued access to the Toobeah Reserve.”
The Senator said he understood the Queensland government “has not yet made an approval decision and has been assessing the options associated with the transference of the Toobeah Reserve to the local traditional owner group for many years”.
“I would appreciate an update on the negotiations, including the likely time frame for decisions as well as an indication of any intention to undertake community consultation with Toobeah residents,” he said.
Mr Offerdahl said for now locals just wanted more attention on the issue. “Because we have no guarantee from them on anything we have no idea of any deadline,” he said.
“Normally they’ll win this by people giving up. Just maintaining the momentum is the biggest thing for us until we actually know what’s going on. The application that’s there now, the council can rescind their support but they’re refusing to do so.”
He also stressed that “none of this is a racial thing”.
“It’s our town,” he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Resources said in a statement that Toobeah Reserve “is a highly culturally significant site for the Bigambul people with Aboriginal burial sites, Aboriginal camps, scar trees and medicine bushes”.
“There have been two public meetings about the proposed transfer — the first was held by the Goondiwindi Regional Council in February and the second on March 4 facilitated by the Department of Resources,” he said.
“The Department will continue to work with the Bigambul people, the Council and the community on the proposed transfer.”
The BNTAC has been contacted for comment.