Working with Local Aboriginal Land Councils

The Director with key staff from the NSW Department of Planning developed a two-day training program for Local Aboriginal Land Councils about the NSW Planning system. With the help of staff from the University of Sydney, Macquarie University, University of New England, Southern Cross University and Western Sydney University, 45 training courses have been delivered across NSW.

The Henry Halloran Trust sponsored a series of public events and appointed an expert on the topic, Professor Libby Porter from RMIT, as an Indigenous advisor. We also hosted some indigenous planning events part of the Festival of Urbanism in 2017 and 2018.

One key step for the Trust was engage Stacey Miers in our a Practitioner in residence program to investigate some of the issues which had been raised by land councils during the training courses. Stacey had helped with some of the training courses and was a very experienced land use planner who had worked for a variety of councils as well as State agencies including the Department of Planning. Stacey produced a research report (pdf, 5.8MB) for the Trust highlighting three case studies based on a desktop review. These three case studies confirmed the concerns raised by many LALCs during the training process, particularly around the lack of consultation and make for some very sobering reading.