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00:00SBS wishes to advise members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
00:05that the following program contains images, voices or names of deceased persons and may cause distress.
00:30For the best part of 20 years, my career took me overseas.
00:34My nostalgic view of Australia was challenged by the place I returned to.
00:40I wonder, is it time that we all began to reimagine what is the idea of Australia?
00:47When I close my eyes and think of Australia,
00:50I see my dad in his shorts mowing the grass.
00:53The surf lifesaver, the footballer.
00:55Meat pies, Vegemite, big sky, big red dirt road through the desert.
01:00This is like a country. There's no question about it.
01:02I mean, if you're born in Australia, you've won the lottery.
01:05What an extraordinary polyglot place it is. It is astonishing.
01:10But the idea of who we are as a nation is still a work in progress.
01:16It sparks debate and conflicting views.
01:20There is something great and awful about Australia.
01:25It's been served up to our people and it's a shit sandwich.
01:28Out of this multitude of stories, crystallises a story of Australia
01:35that is only ever going to be partially true.
01:38This is the story of how struggles and dreams over land have shaped a nation.
01:44Australia was fought for territory by territory as settlers expanded across the continent.
01:51A hundred years of war, at least.
01:54The first time an Australian court had recognised native title.
01:58Australia, one of the richest countries on earth.
02:01Mining has always been part of the Australian economic culture.
02:05We saw a phenomenal increase in standard of living in this country.
02:10Owning land, part of the Australian dream.
02:13Every citizen should be able to acquire a home of his own.
02:17But at what cost?
02:19Once upon a time it would have been news when somebody bought a $10 million house.
02:23They're now buying $20 million houses, $50 million houses, $100 million houses.
02:28What does this turbulent history of land use tell us about the idea of Australia?
02:34And can we rise to the challenge and use this ancient continent and its rich resources for the good of all of us?
02:42This story begins on the most eastern point of Australia.
02:58A place that reveals so much about this nation.
03:03A snapshot of the past 200 years.
03:06European arrival and dispossession.
03:09Land as a resource to be managed, bought and sold.
03:13And the impact of climate change.
03:16All on Bundjalung land.
03:19Welcome.
03:38And we're standing at such an important place, Rachel.
03:42You hear Borrum Bay Meeting Place.
03:44We're here at it.
03:46You know, on your ride is the midden that our people would meet and eat.
03:53When Captain Cook sailed along the east coast of Australia,
03:57he named that magnificent mountain, Mount Warning,
04:01to warn all the ships about the dangerous reefs in this area.
04:05When the first British ship arrived in this bay, my ancestor Bobby was sitting right there.
04:1117 to 20 years old.
04:13Imagine what he thought of those ships arriving.
04:16And they looked at Bundjalung country with money in their eyes.
04:22People have been looking at Byron Bay with money in their eyes ever since.
04:28From logging to farming and fishing, and small industry,
04:32to a surfer's paradise in the 1970s, when blocks of land sold for a few hundred dollars.
04:40Byron Bay, the easternmost point on the continent, is many people's idea of heaven.
04:45Byron Bay is a microcosm of the rest of Australia.
04:48We're not alone.
04:49It's that, you know, boom and bust, if you like.
04:51Now overrun with tourists and choking on a steady stream of traffic.
04:55American developers bought up all the land north of the Brunswick River.
04:59You could buy a block of land for three hundred dollars in Watagos Beach.
05:04It's not just tourists flooding Byron, but permanent residents,
05:08sending property prices exploding like never before.
05:12So there were the people that came that saw the beauty to live here and keep it.
05:17Protesters want to stop the project before it reaches council approval stage.
05:22And then the people that started to develop.
05:25It's just been taken to an extreme here.
05:28It's become a playground for the rich and famous.
05:32People are paying millions and millions of dollars for houses with beautiful views.
05:36Since 2020, it's really starting to get big houses built.
05:40And the prices are 23 million for people to buy.
05:44The way that the nation use land, that it's there to be exploited, says a lot about Australian people.
05:54Maybe not being as connected to it as the First Nations people.
05:59But conservationists in Byron did fight to preserve the fragile environment for decades.
06:05And then join forces to support the region's First Nations people as they sought land rights.
06:141994 is a year that Mum and her three sisters lodged their native title claim over the Byron Shire area.
06:24And these elders signed an incredible historical headland trust agreement.
06:31There's still a fear in Australia that native title means you're going to lose your house, your backyard and a place to put your boat.
06:37We didn't want to take anything away from the non Aboriginal community.
06:42We wanted them to be part of this story and help us protect country.
06:47It's a balance though, isn't it?
06:49It is a balance.
06:50So sharing what native title was about, bringing people together, consulting the community widely about issues.
06:59That was really important to the Araku Elders.
07:03Our people have been living here roughly 22,000 years, Rachel.
07:07So long time, long time.
07:10And growing up here with my elders, we've been taught from a very young age with that duty of care of looking after country.
07:20Our people have won two world environmental awards for our work in protecting the environment.
07:29Intriguingly, a love of the land and its riches was also enjoyed by those sent to the colonies as punishment.
07:39You often read that convicts hated the bush.
07:42In fact, they really loved the bush.
07:44Especially, I think, the people who came from the rural parts of England, where for generations, many people had lived off commons.
07:53Common land is land that's everybody's, it's collective.
07:57They hunted in commons, they got the stuff for building their houses from commons.
08:02When they come to Australia, there's this vast bushland that they can't see any boundaries.
08:09And so it's like finding their commons.
08:13The original idea for the colony was that it would be this simple rural place that would provide food so the British wouldn't have to feed them.
08:21And they managed to support the colony.
08:24But despite the wishes of the first Governor of New South Wales, the land was soon seen as prime real estate.
08:31Governor Philip always wanted it to be a public entity, that land would always be controlled by the Crown.
08:36But within one year, Philip is hearing reports that the officials are trading kind of land for favours and making land into a commodity.
08:45Officers in particular grab vast areas of land.
08:49Most of them have come from fairly humble backgrounds.
08:52They want to make something of themselves.
08:53They want to be Lord of the Manor.
08:54And they end up, yeah, having mansions in the country.
08:58The desire to claim the land was insatiable.
09:02A succession of governors who followed Philip, sold, gifted and leased the land at will.
09:09All on the world's richest quiz, Sale of the Century.
09:14And what's so interesting about early Sydney and early Parramatta is they just squatted on land.
09:20They were supposed to have grants and they weren't supposed to sell.
09:23But they didn't actually have title to land at all.
09:27And they sold it willy-nilly to the next person.
09:30Properties in the heart of Sydney soon snapped up, developed and traded.
09:36House prices are at record heights.
09:38More than 900 auctions across Sydney.
09:412,170,000.
09:44Sydney's property market is heating back up.
09:46Settlers began to venture even further along the harbour.
09:50With buyers battling it out over limited listings, fueling the fear of missing out.
09:55In amongst the competing dreams of land, a little known story of a deal of sorts between the traditional First Nation owners who were still living on the beach and Sydney's new wealthy in Double Bay.
10:08John, it's a beautiful spot.
10:11What's your family's connection to this place?
10:13I've spent a lot of my youth at Elaine, which is right on the waterfront there.
10:19There were two brothers that bought houses here.
10:23Elaine, our house.
10:24The most expensive property in Australia.
10:27The Fairfaxes endlessly entertained the rich and famous there.
10:31And Fairwater, I think, was built a little bit later in about 1880.
10:35Reportedly selling for $100 million.
10:38So two brothers acquired these existing properties in the early 1900s.
10:44Brothers in business and neighbours on the beach?
10:47Yes, indeed.
10:48This is fashionable Seven Shillings Beach, with its touch of the Riviera and its bikinis, right in the heart of our city.
10:56Such an evocative name.
10:58How did Seven Shillings come to be called that?
11:01Oh, well, that's a bit of a mystery.
11:03It's a fascinating story and there are lots of versions of it.
11:06But the one told to me by my father is that an Aboriginal tribe, under the leadership of Gurra, were living here.
11:16They helped themselves to some of the produce that the people living in the houses just behind the beach had.
11:23And they became a little bit of a nuisance.
11:26And so in order to get rid of them, they offered them some money.
11:30And it was some time before they accepted, but it was seven shillings.
11:34Wow, that's quite a story.
11:37So the Seven Shillings didn't sell the beach.
11:41It wasn't like an early native title exchange, here's the beach, I'll take seven shillings.
11:46It was go away money, is that right?
11:48It was go away money, effectively, yes.
11:50But it's a reminder, isn't it?
11:52A lovely reminder that we weren't alone in this world or in this colony.
11:57The Indigenous population played a part.
12:00And they played a part on Seven Shillings Beach.
12:03Some years later, his wife dies.
12:06He hasn't spent that Seven Shillings?
12:09No, apparently not.
12:11He's still got the Seven Shillings?
12:13Still got the Seven Shillings.
12:14And then Gurra allegedly buried his wife in Double Bay somewhere with those Seven Shillings alongside her.
12:22I wonder if him burying those Seven Shillings was a way to say it wasn't about the money.
12:30Look, Rachel, I think that's a fair interpretation, frankly.
12:33We know that the Indigenous people, our First Nations people, have a very close affinity with the land.
12:39And I'm sure you can surmise that the land was more important than the money.
12:46It wouldn't have meant a hell of a lot to him, I don't think.
12:49Just coin.
12:50Just another coin.
12:51Just coin.
12:52Yeah.
12:53Yeah.
12:54It wasn't the only time that the beach was contested.
12:57Because after Gurra, almost a century later, there's another stash about this beach, isn't there?
13:02Yes, I think when new homeowners moved into the area, they felt that it was their right to virtually shut it up.
13:14Unless you go by boat, there's only one way to get there.
13:17And the way you do it is through this gate.
13:19And only a very few people have the key.
13:21Are they able to get the key?
13:22No, they're not.
13:23Well, what are you going to do to get access to the beach?
13:26I suppose the only thing we can do is try to petition the council.
13:29There have been several attempts to open it, but council has been very steadfast in refusing it.
13:34So really what you've got is a beach which is open to a few presumably rich people?
13:38Yes.
13:39Now I find it impossible that such a beach should be closed to the public.
13:42The public won, eventually.
13:44Some might think it was un-Australian for a row of rich families to wall up a beach.
13:51At no time did our family want it locked up.
13:55And that's only fair, isn't it, I think?
13:57It's got to be used by as many people as possible.
14:01Sydney Harbour is so special.
14:06The story of Seven Shillings Beach is unusual.
14:09The settlement wasn't fair, but it wasn't as violent as many contests over land.
14:16The 1830s was the era when the settlers were moving out over the vast area of the whole Murray-Darling Basin.
14:25This deeply concerned the British government, particularly the colonial office.
14:34This is a convict colony.
14:35They don't want convicts to get out into the interior.
14:40They want it to be like Britain, where there'd be villages and it would be controlled, like English rural society.
14:47But they did. I mean, they just swept that aside and off they went into the interior.
14:52We have purchased horses, a team of bullocks and wagons, and they're on our way.
14:57And so the British set up a system where the pastoralists could get seven or 14 year leases.
15:04So they couldn't claim ownership.
15:06And so the pastoral lease was meant to control what was happening all over Australia and they're still there.
15:14Whose land is that?
15:16Blacks? Squatters? They take the land. Farm it. Help yourself.
15:23The squatters assumed it was their land and went on generation after generation assuming this.
15:30This extraordinary, extraordinary occupation.
15:34These things came together to make the squatting rush one of the most significant events in Australian history.
15:44We'll build a kingdom yet.
15:47Australia was fought for territory by territory as settlers expanded across the continent.
15:55And it was a battle that raged for, say, ten years in each region until Aboriginal people were defeated.
16:06And then they'd move on to the next area.
16:09It began right here in Gadigal country in Sydney.
16:14And then it went south to Tasmania, over to Western Australia, went up the east coast of Australia,
16:24went inland from New South Wales, through up to Queensland, from South Australia up to the Territory,
16:29right across the north of Australia and it finished in the Kimberley.
16:32A hundred years of war, at least.
16:36This century-long war and the pastoral leases handed out did not extinguish Aboriginal rights to the land.
16:44A fact finally recognised in 1996 in the landmark WIC judgment.
16:51The High Court has decided that pastoral leases do not extinguish native title subject to the WIC claim.
16:58That is the Christmas present I'll take to the WIC people. Thank you all.
17:05Tens of thousands died in the Australian wars as settlers realised their dreams of land.
17:13And the determination to claim the land and the rush for riches was about to enter a new chapter
17:19that would define a continent for decades to come.
17:31Melbourne today still drips with its rich history.
17:34A city built on money that flowed from the land, gold mining and agriculture.
17:42But the story behind this wealth is more complicated than we've been told.
17:47The Western District of Victoria begins to be settled from 1834 or 35.
18:00Men rush in and head west across very fertile plains where they see the potential for raising cattle, sheep and producing fine wool.
18:13Well Australia was one of the most rapidly occupied continents in the world.
18:22And the thing that drove the occupation was really the wool industry.
18:28They threw the sheep off the ships in the shallow water near Williamstown.
18:32And those sheep, once they got to the shore, they just ate their way west, obliterating a whole agricultural system.
18:40The land had been prepared by the Aborigines as hunting ground.
18:44Cleared of undergrowth, made it perfect country for the squatters simply to move into.
18:53This squatters story and an economy driven off the sheep's back
18:57has been mythologised and celebrated, not least in our iconic Australian films.
19:03There goes the first of Shane's clip.
19:06I am living for the thrill of getting my first wool away.
19:09Is that all you're living for?
19:11But the story we've told ourselves hides our history.
19:15The dark truth about where some of the money came from to bankroll this great land grab.
19:22When the British government legislated to abolish slavery in the 1830s, they set aside the many millions of pounds to compensate everybody who owned enslaved people.
19:34A number of those people who receive compensation for their human property, let's be frank, then bring that money to Australia to invest.
19:44Key people in the Western District were using slave reparation money.
19:50They can't invest in the Caribbean any longer.
19:53So people come in the 1830s and by 1851 there are six million sheep.
19:59Whoa, it's a bit of Australia's in it.
20:02I want to see the sheep country, Sherry.
20:04Who are you going to?
20:05Who are you going to?
20:06Who are you going to?
20:07Who are you going to?
20:08Who are you going to?
20:09Who are you going to?
20:10Using this rich land for farming is of course predicated on the removal of the people who were already there.
20:18That pastoral frontier is breathtakingly violent and very rapid.
20:24When the settlers came down in droves from New South Wales and headed into Western Victoria,
20:31the massacres correlate exactly with the establishment of settler properties.
20:39But the dreams of pastoralists to make their fortunes from the land is met with fierce First Nations opposition.
20:48The Yamarilla War was the Gunditjmara resistance.
20:52They led an attack on the squatters for over 25 years here.
20:57The Stony Rises is hard to get into.
21:00You come in, it's not just the stones, it's the gullies.
21:05When the squatters tried to come through, they couldn't.
21:08They couldn't get through on their horses.
21:10Even today when you come into the Stony Country, you need to know where you go and otherwise you'd end up lost.
21:16So it's a fortress.
21:20Our country was never terra nullias.
21:22There was always Gunditjmara people here and our country was never wasteland.
21:27Gunditjmara people were killed, murdered for their country.
21:30It was a hostile, brutal takeover, invasion.
21:33It was never settled.
21:35They were saying we were brutal, we were barbaric.
21:39When they opened up them holes of the sheep, that wasn't civilisation.
21:43It was horror.
21:45It created a lot of wealthy people and a lot of wealthy government off the sheep's back.
21:50Still a lot of wealthy ones around today.
21:55Understanding this early colonial history and the way that pastoralists generated all this wealth from Indigenous land, in Victoria in particular, allows us also to understand our present better.
22:10Because those pastoralists invested in and made donations to some of the institutions that are still with us and that have shaped our society over the intervening 150 years.
22:25So if we think of some of the most prominent schools...
22:29The Future King spent two terms as an exchange student at Geelong Grammar School's Timber Top, a remote campus at the foot of the Victorian Alps.
22:39The Geelong Grammars, the Scotch Colleges, the University of Melbourne.
22:43They all benefited very directly from that pastoral wealth.
22:48There also needs to be a reckoning about how that wealth was generated and at whose expense.
22:56I think it's inevitable that in Australia we will have those conversations about reparations.
23:02And I think it's right that we do.
23:05The land where battles raged between pastoralists and First Nations people until the 1860s is now the Budjbim Cultural Landscape.
23:18A celebration of thousands of years of First Nations survival and ingenious innovation.
23:25The world's oldest and largest aquaculture.
23:28You know, there's 150 different stone structures that make up the aquaculture here.
23:33It's 6,600 years old.
23:35It's older than the pyramids in Egypt.
23:37It's older than the Stonehenge in Europe.
23:39And within the lake itself there's about 10 different eel trap complexes, all on different elevations.
23:45So they've increased the production of the eels and the habitat of the eels by flooding these areas that would usually dry.
23:54Evidence too of permanent settlement and exploiting the land's riches to become economically and socially sustainable.
24:04There's about 350 recorded stone houses on the World Heritage property.
24:09They're all these C-shaped stone foundations that sit about a metre high.
24:15The mob would get about 10 eels and hang them up in the hollow of a tree, make a fire at the bottom.
24:20That way it sort of preserves the eel as well so you can store it or eat it or trade it as well.
24:25And they had these holding ponds, these fridges, just 20 metres away.
24:29Get up in the morning and grab a eel and chuck it on the fire.
24:34In 2019, Budj Bim attracted international acclaim.
24:38The first place in Australia to be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List
24:44solely because of its Aboriginal cultural significance.
24:48Opportunities soon flowed.
24:51They've been able to use their knowledge, their cultural and traditional and ecological knowledge,
24:57as the content for tourism, adventures and activities.
25:02And it just makes sense in the Budj Bim cultural landscape.
25:07First Nations people reaping the rewards of the land by sharing their culture and knowledge.
25:14My hope for the future is to make this place bigger in the right way by protecting the country at the same time.
25:20My role here is a tour coordinator for people to come and experience Gunditjmara country
25:27and learning and understanding who we are as people.
25:30To have that right narrative is important because the next generation, they have to know the truth.
25:36Budj Bim, the creation story, that's 37,000 years ago.
25:40And you can't change that because it's right there.
25:43And there's evidence all across this country.
25:50That's enabled the community to be able to be employed full time out on country.
25:54So vegetation's come back, the aquatic plants, the eels, the fish are in bigger numbers, the water birds, all that.
26:00It's just really great to see.
26:03It's a very important landscape and it keeps our mob strong.
26:06And when our country's strong, our mob are strong.
26:09A lot of the feedback that we get on the tours, you know, we never got taught this in school.
26:14We've got to share the story to protect the story.
26:17Debunking a lot of the myths that came with colonisation.
26:20You know, these other narratives about us, stories told about us but not by us.
26:25Another step of resistance in the face of colonisation and there will be many, many more steps.
26:32The fight continues.
26:35In the story of the dreams of land, it seems a new respectful era may be emerging.
26:41But the contest over the riches that lie below the surface will continue to shape the idea of Australia.
26:50In the story of how struggles and dreams over land have helped form the idea of Australia.
27:00There is one industry that's impacted every single one of us.
27:07Now, more than ever, we're a nation of diggers.
27:10It has supercharged our economy, helping make the country one of the richest in the world.
27:15Mine ore, gold, nickel, you name it, we're selling it.
27:19This mining boom's raking in $1,000 a second.
27:23So we're talking about billions and billions of dollars.
27:25Oh, it's huge.
27:26Clashed with First Nations people and conservationists.
27:30This country's got to stop stealing other people's land.
27:34Exerted power over our politics.
27:37This is coal. Don't be afraid. It's coal.
27:40And shaped the land itself.
27:43From about 2003, 2005, we saw a phenomenal mining resources boom in this country,
27:51driven by China's industrialisation.
27:54The riches were incredible.
27:56Mining has brought massive benefits to the 2% of the Australian labour force
28:00that works in the mining industry.
28:02And that's a good thing.
28:03It's the other 98% that I'm worried about.
28:05The law is that what is beneath the soil belongs to the Crown.
28:11And the way the Australian legal system has dealt with that subsoil ownership
28:15is to create a system under which private entities are able to get permission to dig it up and sell it for profit.
28:22And what that's amounted to in practice is the wholesale conversion to private wealth
28:28of what was in truth the wealth of the Australian people.
28:33I think we are a nation who celebrates plunder.
28:38I think we celebrate finders keepers.
28:41In the past 12 months alone, her wealth has increased by $18 billion.
28:46Clearly, you have tremendous wealth and profits accruing to those companies,
28:52but that is the nature of capitalism.
28:55It's the nature of mining developments.
28:57Rio Tinto has set a record dividend of almost $17 billion.
29:02A lot of the revenue from mining in terms of proceeds to government
29:06has helped to finance social security and service delivery in the major cities.
29:13It's been very good for some.
29:15And for the vast majority, it's actually been bad, whether they realise it or not.
29:18And they should be aware that they have not had the real wage increases
29:21that they would have had had it not been for the mining boom.
29:24They would have been much better off on average had it not occurred.
29:28And the economics on that is pretty sound.
29:31The huge wealth of the mining industry has been seen to have brought the keys
29:36to the corridors of power.
29:39Those that stand to profit from the exploitation of these resources
29:42have been able to play a very hard game and make it politically difficult.
29:47for governments to follow their best instincts.
29:50Those companies are able to make their arguments very persuasively in the halls of power.
29:56Most politicians are on board.
29:59Mining has helped deliver to Australia some of the highest living standards in the world.
30:03There's a great future in coal mining here and around the nation.
30:07Funding for schools, funding for hospitals, funding to keep our national economy going.
30:13But history shows that going head to head with big mining in a power play can be a risky business.
30:20That attempt by the Rudd government to impose tax on mining companies in Australia
30:26was brutally shut down by the sheer weight of money.
30:29It could be your job.
30:32You're gonna get whacked.
30:33Or your superannuation.
30:34You're gonna get whacked.
30:35Or your electricity bill.
30:36Buy the mining tax.
30:37That campaign by the mining industry was a relevant factor in the failure of Kevin Rudd as prime minister.
30:51There's no question about that.
30:54But does it need to be this way?
30:56Are there other ideas of how to use the land and for all Australians to have a stake in the nation's riches?
31:03Other countries have used the mineral wealth of the nation to establish vast sovereign wealth funds
31:11that can then be used for the betterment of the people as a whole.
31:16Norway said we are sitting on a lot of oil.
31:19This is Norway's oil.
31:21This belongs to the people of Norway.
31:23And so they taxed their oil industry.
31:26They're sitting on a $2.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund.
31:30Now that was the alternative model.
31:32That is not the path that was taken.
31:35As big mining generates huge profits, but also supercharges the economy, the impact on First Nations people has been profound.
31:46It was our land that was taken from us in order for mining to occur.
31:51The police closed in.
31:53At the time the convoy arrived, 22 people had been arrested.
31:58And what can we do once you have to live with mines right next to your community?
32:04And the majority of mines are co-located with Aboriginal communities.
32:14And ironically, it's the destructive force of mining that galvanised First Nations people, sparking the land rights movement that continues to this day.
32:251963, and in the Akala in far north east Arnhem Land, the traditional owners are staring down the bulldozers.
32:38They wanted to be consulted about the use of their land, which was about to be mined for bauxite.
32:44When they found that their land was simply being taken from them by mining interests, they took the action of putting down on a bark petition what they saw as their rights and how they should be respected.
33:04The petition called for consultation over mining, as well as recognition of their ownership of the country.
33:11The bark petitions are one of the most significant documents in Australian history.
33:27I find it so moving to be in front of these petitions. Can you tell us why they're so important?
33:34It was the first time a petition had been sent to Parliament that was written in both an Australian language, in this case Yongwamata, and the English language.
33:44And also had been constructed in a way that was representing Aboriginal law.
33:51The artwork there is just like a map, you know, please don't come and destroy our land.
33:58This is our beautiful country. The shrubs and the birds and the animals, the wildlife, all mean something twice.
34:06So that's why it's really important to see these as a gift of cultural knowledge that was being given to the Australian people to say, please try to understand us in the same way that we're trying to understand you.
34:22And then maybe we can move forward together. And what I find so moving about that is that we're still trying to figure that out now.
34:31It's over 60 years ago and First Nations people are still trying to ask this nation to accept them on their own terms, to listen to their views, their perspectives and what is best for them.
34:47We haven't gotten there yet.
34:50Ultimately, the Yolngw people's demands were not met and the mine at Yakala went ahead.
35:02But the struggle for First Nations people to be meaningfully recognised and share the spoils of their traditional lands had entered a new era.
35:13We will legislate to give Aborigines land rights.
35:16We will legislate to give Aborigines land rights.
35:23Burunga, Northern Territory, 1988.
35:26There shall be a treaty negotiated between the Aboriginal people and the Government on behalf of all the people of Australia.
35:38Finally, after 200 years of British colonisation, our nation was going to do it.
35:45They were going to deal with the thing that wasn't dealt with back in 1788.
35:54But despite the initial elation, the promised treaty and its recognition of Aboriginal land and law never materialised.
36:01The unveiling of the Burunga Statement in this place in 1991 by the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, was his last act of office.
36:16He had promised a treaty, but it was never delivered.
36:19The story goes that on this day he wept, his tears heavy with regret.
36:28The document itself, in one sense, is not the important thing.
36:34The important thing is what's in our minds and in our hearts.
36:46He was politically weak and he didn't use his political capital at that moment to do what he should have done.
36:58So, he should cry.
37:01We certainly cried when he didn't do it.
37:04But a seismic moment was coming that still reverberates across Australia today.
37:13A reckoning of who owns the land beneath our feet.
37:17Ten years ago, a Murray Islander called Eddie Mabo, a representative of the Merriam people,
37:23took a test case to the High Court claiming his people had native title of the islands.
37:27If only we can get those people to recognise us.
37:31I suppose by saying that, that the only way that we can prove that the system do exist is to convince the white man's law system.
37:39To recognise that we have a custom, a tradition and set of rules that we had to abide by.
37:46Koiki Mabo simply refused to believe the fiction of Terra Nullius and he came to his own conclusion and he changed the law.
37:57It was the first time white man's law had ever acknowledged that anyone lived in Australia before the arrival of European settlers.
38:04Hallelujah! Finally, we're admitting what we knew all along. Thanks for that.
38:13But the backlash was swift. The opposition familiar.
38:18Mabo, to me, is ultimately as bad as I see it to be because of its potential to destroy our society.
38:27The big mining companies get behind the government and they started the scare campaign.
38:35It's every property in Australia. That could be at risk.
38:38This shows 78% of the land mass of Australia coloured brown on this map.
38:44Now, the Labor Party and the Democrats are effectively saying that the Aboriginal people of Australia should have the potential right of veto over further development of 78% of the land mass of Australia.
38:59And people were scared that their suburban backyards were going to be taken by Aboriginal people.
39:08Millions of us were going to come out of the bush and take over their backyards.
39:12What do you call this place?
39:19It's a barbecue area.
39:22Barbecue area? They call this barbecue area.
39:26Nice native name.
39:29Colourful.
39:31There's nothing like a lightning bolt of the race division that people use in this country.
39:37And they used it on Mabo and they used it on the referendum that's just happened.
39:44And it's electrifying.
39:46And I think the nerve it strikes is the fact that this country was illegally taken.
39:52So Mabo did that.
39:54Treaty did that.
39:55And the referendum in some ways did the same thing.
40:01The times are continuing to change.
40:04In 2025, the High Court ruled that the traditional owners who once created the bark petitions are owed compensation for the mining at Yakala.
40:15The Gulmarch people have taken on the government and won in a landmark native title case.
40:22Just this as reserved in this country.
40:24Today, native title claims over 40% of Australia, with some areas like the Kimberley as high as 90%.
40:33Most mining companies now work with local communities and are often a major employer of First Nations people.
40:44Finally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are able to grasp an economic hold in their own lands and begin to rebuild their communities and local economies.
40:57So that's been a very good outcome.
41:00In some places, of course, it means there's a great deal of money because mining's involved.
41:05In other places, there's very little.
41:07But it's the recognition that's significant.
41:10The competing dreams of land will go on.
41:14But there is more at stake than just money.
41:18Together, we all face the existential threat from climate change.
41:22So how can we draw on the past to find hope for our future?
41:31Struggles and dreams over land has shaped Australia for almost 250 years.
41:37It has made fortunes but taken a toll on people and the place itself.
41:43The Dukin Caves in the Pilbara region of WA were destroyed in May to make way for a mining operation.
41:52Rio Tinto reduced 46,000 years of history to rubble.
41:57What is progress? What does that mean for country?
42:02The land can only be flogged so much before it gets sick.
42:04And the consequence is the misery for the many and the destruction of our beautiful country.
42:13Now climate change, the greatest threat of all, looms over the land and the relentless rush for riches.
42:21Charlie's been given a grim outlook with extreme fire seasons, major flooding and severe cyclones forecast on the horizon.
42:29And that what's driving them is human-caused climate change.
42:33The big distinction between the European perspective and the First Nations perspective is that we Europeans, we don't see ourselves as being part of the land.
42:48We see ourselves as managers. Managers at best and plunderers at worst.
42:53On the opposite side of the continent from Byron Bay, the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area in Western Australia is home to the Byungu people.
43:07We talk to the spirits and let them know who we are. They're still here, guiding and taking care of us. This is our home. And you here with us. You must always respect and look after our country. Our country will respect and look after you.
43:28How long do we know that people are living here? Your ancestors? 36,000 years?
43:39When your people have been on that country, been buried in that country, been born on the country, walked on that country.
43:46Know every curve and nuance of the landscape and all the animals and plants in incredible detail. So close to it. That's what it means to be Indigenous. You're just bound into it.
44:03Ningaloo is acknowledged as one of the most environmentally significant places on Earth. But this 300 kilometre coastline, home to 250 types of coral and 500 species of fish, is under siege.
44:21Cyclones and global warming are taking a toll on Douglas' precious coral and reef systems. The marine life is now at a record low level.
44:28The same way that Kakadu is worth saving, the same way Uluru is worth saving, this is an actual icon.
44:35Ningaloo today is also under direct threat from the expansion plans of Woodside seeking to build the largest new fossil fuel development that's on the books anywhere in Australia.
44:49Woodside's own modelling shows that if something goes wrong, that's Ningaloo in deep trouble.
44:56A native title agreement means the region is now jointly managed by traditional owners and the state government.
45:06It's really important, Ningaloo Reef, and we must look after it and protect it. Just like our old people did. They looked after the country. You know this is a special place. No other place like Ningaloo.
45:19As well as working with government on environmental protection, the traditional owners run a cultural tourism venture with a non-indigenous boat operator and have a ranger program that cares for country.
45:33How much more meaningful is it for you that this is on your country than if you were doing this elsewhere in Australia?
45:42Yeah, no, it's very meaningful. It's like you just get to go out and hang out on your country every day and just, you know, actually maintaining it while you're on the job.
45:51Does it piss you off when you come across a pack of dickheads throwing tinnies?
45:55Yeah, it does, it does. We've got all these ancient artefacts and you come up to the white fella artefacts when you have all the cans and empty bottles and stuff like that.
46:05Right next to where these old fellas used to sit and have their feet.
46:08Delilah, what do you find the most rewarding part of doing this work?
46:13I find when you learn more stuff about your culture and that, it's really fun.
46:21And she's also one of the only female rangers as well that we've got here.
46:24So you're breaking the ceiling?
46:26Yeah.
46:27She's also the youngest ranger we've got at the moment.
46:29Fantastic.
46:30Yeah.
46:31Do you feel better about being here and doing what you're doing now that you are playing
46:37a part of sharing a much longer history?
46:41100%.
46:42Yeah, definitely.
46:43It's important that it happens together, I think.
46:47I think there's...
46:48Two-way street?
46:49Yeah, it's a two-way street.
46:51I don't want to share stuff that's not my information, but I think to not share it at all is a travesty.
46:57Like, this information should be shared.
46:59There's been people here looking after this country for 65,000 years before you.
47:03That's how old that link is to this country.
47:07So, yeah, I think it's pretty amazing.
47:10It is.
47:11It's pretty special.
47:12Yeah.
47:13As the rangers work to protect and preserve, there's one phenomenon that Ningaloo is internationally
47:20famed for.
47:21One of the largest gatherings of whale sharks anywhere in the world.
47:26We still strongly feel that our ancestors come to us in that marine form.
47:36They come to Ningaloo every season.
47:40We don't need to talk.
47:42Just two souls connecting.
47:45And this has been passed down from generation to generation, and it'll continue.
47:58Perhaps the lessons of the last 200 years or so, and the knowledge gathered over millennia,
48:04show us that maybe there is a different and better way for all Australians to move forward together.
48:12It's all about a sense of respecting and honouring the land.
48:18Seeing what the land, the waters, the skies can be if we let it flourish.
48:24Non-Indigenous Australia, they can have a love for the country that makes them want to care for it,
48:30and protect it, and love it.
48:32A lot of Australians feel that about their country.
48:35Think it's the thing that unites us.
48:37So I think a lot about the landscape of Australia and how ridiculously amazing it is.
48:43And there's a vastness to it that actually creates an optimism in me.
48:49There's nothing like the Australian bush to make you feel nostalgic, but it's what makes Australia unique.
48:56And I do think about the long wash of the Australian Ocean.
49:01You know, the cascade over the hard sand when a wave breaks.
49:06I think, to me, that's the essence of the country.
49:09I remember being back just for a few days once, and I just heard that particular iteration of birdsong,
49:15and I thought, I'm home.
49:17Australia makes me smile.
49:20Australia makes me comfortable.
49:22It smells like something sweet and something wholesome.
49:26And I love the smell of rainforest, and the smell of big storms coming up over the horizon.
49:33And we must come to terms with accommodating our fellow species in a way that, you know, enables them to survive.
49:45Most of the big corporations have realised that the writing's on the wall for fossil fuels and are switching to green energy.
49:55And we must do everything we can to encourage that.
49:58But what we should try to do is to find our own economic system that draws benefit from repairing nature rather than destroying nature.
50:09That's the big transformation that has to be made.
50:12And it's possible.
50:13In fact, on my more optimistic days, I would say probable.
50:17The challenge before us is massive.
50:19We have to embrace social economic change at emergency speed and scale, and brace for the waves that are coming for us.
50:28But I don't doubt the power, energy, creativity, kindness or determination of the Australian people.
50:36We all know that human beings working together can achieve anything.
50:40We knuckle down in the face of this and just watch us. Just watch us go.
50:48Next time, how Australian films, artists and national icons have shaped our identity.
50:56We grapple with who we are. Ask what is an Australian story, you're going to get a hundred different answers.
51:04The story we've written for ourselves is incomplete.
51:08You have to look for what's not there in a country which has used silence as a weapon.
51:14And so, in a rapidly changing and challenging world, how might we forge a new idea of Australia?
51:22Young people will be able to face the history in a far more open way than has ever been done before.
51:29I'd love to be here in Australia a hundred years time. I tell my grandchildren that the opportunities they've got.
51:34I've got!
51:47We'll take you on your own show at the moment.
51:50We'll be back.
51:51Transcription by CastingWords
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