diamond (bendigo) replied:

that would be right .
pretty soon the only place to drive your fourby will be to school and shopping centres.looking foward to september(landcruiser park/fraser island)

Member - Bonz (Vic) replied:

Move over Mike!

These kind of stories worry me, it always seems to be about the money, never the land. You pay or we wont let you do this or do that.

I agree with Mike, in a multi-cultural society, all australians regardless of their ancestry should have access to our wonderful land. We are, after-all, all Australians together and we shoudl firstly start treating each other in that manner and then start being treated in that manner by our ELECTED representatives.

Literally lateralSo many places to go!
So much work to do :0(

Jeff (Beddo) replied:

Sounds like the local government is screwing the Aboriginal community again as the Aboriginal people have had since European settlement - everything from masacres, poison in flour & on blankets and the stolen children to name a few issues. I say write to council and get them to act and fix the issues. The Aboriginal people have a right to bebleepoff - there is still a lot of racism out there - we need to communicate and work as one.
Whos this Mike fella maybe he should look into Australian history and see who has been treated equally.
White mans land ? I think we stole it mate by invading !Cheers, Beddo
Surf KZN185
<- Yengo NP, Central Coast NSW

Squid replied:

How dare the local Aboriginal community think they can use the money from the permits to actually maintain Stockton so that we 4wders can continue to enjoy it. Better that the council continue to rake in the money and put it into god knows what.

Are you guys serious? You would rather see the council collect the money and do nothing with it rather than let the traditonal owners look after the site?

There is no doubt that segments of the indigenous population have some serious social issues, which need to be addressed, both by indigenous and the non indigenous population. However, here is a case in which the local indigenous community have stated that they would like to use the money obtained to benefit the whole community, not just theirs, and some people still lay the boot in.

If it was a non aboriginal group asking for the money to be used effectively what would people's responses be?

What are we afraid of?

Joe replied:

I’d have to agree with Squid on this – as long as access permit fees go to maintenance of the land and in keeping access for all as a primary focus I wouldn’t care who collected the money.

There are an awful lot of misinformed people out there who believe that any blackfeller can simply go out and collect a new LandCruiser, run it until the fuel tank is empty and then collect another one. If these people had ever been out there then they would know that the lot of most aboriginal peoples is poverty and poor health.

It is certainly true that there are thieves and charlatans in aboriginal communities, just as there are in all other communities, but these money grabbers should not be seen as the norm. In my opinion this is one area where ATSIC has dismally failed. I have my own story of ATSIC greed where three people associated with ATSIC diverted funds to build houses for themselves instead of improving the lot of their people and it is just such stories that hit peoples imagination and make them think that all aboriginals are the same.

As for the seemingly positive discrimination in favour of aboriginal peoples, well I think we should ignore the “aboriginal” part of the discrimination and agree that any group of people that lives with such awful disadvantages needs to be helped to lift them to a standard that we would all consider acceptable.

This would include the other groups currently held in such distaste such as the boat peoples and urban homeless.

The real issue here would be in setting the level deemed to be acceptable and in making this assistance available to all people and not limiting it to particular groups.

As for who owns the land now? Well I subscribe to the old belief that “I conquered it, therefore it is mine”. That has certainly been true for the rest of the world so why not here?