the eagle, talawane and david carnegie HWY in wa, ACCESS PROBS

thanks for the quisk reply, we did not know if blocked due to private property. if we do to haig before we turn sth to cockilbiddy is that ok

I'm don't know about the Haig route...some on here will know

john we are going mid july
benno

Hi Dick
Mick and Alan may be better qualified to comment, but in the past you just went to the area. I like many people were shocked to read what Mick Hutton submitted and if it all goes ahead, will effect travel in the northern areas of WA Deserts. The best part about WA, in my personal opinion is that it has the BEST desert areas in Australia for remote four wheel driving. Sure the Martu Native Title area is a vast area, but surely the there will be some compromise made, as banning people from this area will only force people to travel in these area illegally or do what I will be doing again this year and keep south of the area, where travel is legal and there are still very remote places that still sees little or almost no traffic at all.

I know that it would be a very big ask and would never happen, but if travel through Martu areas was black banned for one season, the dollar speaks in everyone's language and there would be a very big rethink regarding issuing of permits - just my thoughts

Cheers

Stephen

Hi Stephen

I think a lot of us were shocked when we read Mick Hutton's post.

As you say there is still a lot of lovely desert south of the Martu Native Title Area and if the Martu do not get realistic about reasonable access a lot of $$$ will go elsewhere.

A black ban would be a good idea if it could be properly co-ordinated. Even if you only stopped 50% of the travel in that area it should make the Martu consider a realistic permit system.

Will be interesting to see what other posts come up on this subject. I think a lot of people don't know about it yet, and it is not yet reflected in the Trek Notes.

Regards
Dick

Hi guys,

look I beg to differ and perhaps it's me whose wrong but I thought you always needed a permit to travel these roads, well in recent years at least. I've always had them. My interpretation of the thrust of Mick H's post was that you will be able to travel these roads in the future with a permit but you cannot deviate off them. Only the tracks/roads are public access. More than 50m metres off the track and you will be in breach unless you have permission to visit that specific area as an addendum to your permit.

Mick

Hi Dick,

You are correct as far as you will be adhering to the wishes of the council. They have no choice but to let you travel these roads, as it is written in the determination.

If you choose to visit for example Warri site without a permit, you will be going against the wishes of the council but may possibly still remain within the boundaries of the law. This has not been tested in court yet however it is only a matter of time. The council is counting on being believed by the majority of people.

It is not only Martu that you have to worry about but other determinations as well, as Mick stated in his thread.

Here is a map of some of the major determinations in WA, taken from the Native Title Tribunal Website:http://www.nntt.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

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Have a read of the Native Title Act. I have done this and am quietly confident, however by no means sure that a bona fide traveller should be able to visit non-protected sites within a determination area freely.

Also of interest is the actual Martu determination found here: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2002/1208.html

Regards
Alan