Use and continuity in the customary marine tenure of the Whitsunday Islands

Abstract

This chapter outlines the case for the recognition of a Customary Marine Tenure under the Native Title Act and argues that continutity and 'traditional' use of the marine environment in the Whitsunday region today largely revolves around the traditional hunting of turtle and dugong and that the ramifications of recent pressure for local Aboriginal communities to cease the hunting of these species has the potential to extinquish Native Title.