Our Story
Our Claim
On June 29, 2016 at Moranbah Community Hall, Justice Dowsett granted the Barada Barna People Consent Detmination.
Consent Determination for the Barada Barna People means that they are the recognised Traditional Owners of the land we are on today. Justice Dowsett granting Barada Barna People their consent determination was bittersweet as he was the Judge that dismissed the Barada Barna People in the first place.
See the map to see what area the Barada Barna People are the recognised Traditional Owners of.
Barada Barna Land
The Barada Barna Native Title history began back in late 1993 when the late Frank Budby objected to the Burton Gorge Dam being built. It was too close to the cave paintings that he and his family had visited when his kids were growing up.
As as young man, Frank worked on cattle properties with his father and he found out about the cave paintings then. From that time on, he became more involved in fighting for our rights and for our people.
The late Frank Budby and the late Norman Brown then worked together from 1994 to put our first native title claim into the national native title tribunal in 1997, which was BBKY#1, (Barada Barna Kabalbarra Yetimarla) which represented the 4 groups in the region. The claim then was replaced by BBKY#2 and subsequently BBKY#3 and BBKY#4 from about 2001 to 2008.
Burton – Rock Art
Our Ancestors
Through extensive anthropological research, 10 apical ancestors were found to be present in the Barada Barna history that everyone can trace back to.
New Claims
In 2008 a new claim was lodged and registered with the NNTT. That claim was the Barada Barna Peoples Claim and the applicants were Frank Budby, Les Budby and Cecil Brown Jr. These were the 3 applicants that spoke on behalf of the Barada Barna people.
Everything was running smoothly until 2012 when Justice Dowsett unfortunately decided to deregister the Barada Barna Claim due to lack of evidence.
The applicants appealed the decision in the High Court of Australia, this process took 2 years but, in that time, 2 other Native Title claims were lodged within the Barada Barna Claim Area. These were the Widi People’s Claim and BKY Claim (Barada Kabalbarra Yetimarla).
The BKY claim didn’t get registered as the Applicants objected to both the native title claims however the Widi Claim did get registered
SUCCESS: In 2014 the High Court of Australia handed down their decision in favor of the Barada Barna applicants and the Barada Barna Claim was reinstated with a vote of 3-0 by the Judges.
Burton – Rock Art
The Common Law Holders comprise all the descendants of:
Bob Lotus
Lizzy Payne
Daisy (wife of Booya McDonald)
Maggie (wife of Toby Barker/Peter Darwin/ Michael Angus)
“Polly” Mary (wife of Robert Noble & Bert Fox)
Lizzie (wife of Paddy Flynn)
Polly (wife of Thomas Mitchell)
Lucy Ross
Laura (wife of Duke/George Barker, Neddy/Teddy Sauney/Adam Bowen)
Charles Budby (father of George “Salt Bush” Budby)
recognised Traditional Owners
On June 29, 2016 at Moranbah Community Hall, Justice Dowsett granted the Barada Barna People Consent Determination.
Consent Determination for the Barada Barna People means that they are the recognised Traditional Owners of the land we are on today.
Justice Dowsett granting Barada Barna People their consent determination was bittersweet as he was the Judge that dismissed the Barada Barna People in the first place.
Have a look at the map to see what area the Barada Barna People are the recognised Traditional Owners of.,
The Barada Barna People are the recognised Traditional Owners of this area.