Menindee Common Trust in Limbo as Legal Costs and Land Disputes Leave Council at a Crossroads

IN SHORT

• There are approximately fifteen outstanding leases and licences on Menindee Common Trust land that remain unresolved due to the high cost of using mandatory Crown Land legal templates.
• Several private homes have been built on what are technically council roads rather than private land, creating a significant legal liability for the shire.
• Council has resolved to seek urgent discussions with the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure and push for special grant funding before agreeing to take on another three year management term.

The future management of the Menindee Common Trust is hanging in the balance after Central Darling Shire Council resolved at its February ordinary meeting to demand urgent state government support before committing to a further three year term overseeing the troubled parcel of Crown land.

The trust, which sits on the doorstep of the Menindee Lakes system in the state's Far West, has accumulated a significant backlog of unresolved legal and administrative issues that the council says it simply cannot afford to fix on its own. At the heart of the problem is a stack of approximately fifteen outstanding leases and licences that have been stalled for years because the legal templates required under Crown Land regulations are expensive to prepare and enforce.

Interim General Manager Robert Hunt told councillors the situation is more complicated than a simple paperwork delay. A number of private residences have been built on what are technically classified as council roads rather than privately titled land. That means people are living in homes that sit, legally speaking, on public road reserves, a circumstance that creates genuine liability and uncertainty for both the residents and the council responsible for managing the land.

Adding another layer of complexity, Indigenous land use agreements are required before access to key points on the trust land can be formalised. Racecourse Road, one of the main access routes through the area, is among those requiring an agreement before it can be properly administered. Negotiating those agreements takes time, specialist legal expertise and money, none of which the cash-strapped shire currently has in ready supply.

Council discussed the option of returning the land to the Crown entirely, which would effectively hand the administrative burden back to the state government. However, that option attracted concern from councillors who argued that walking away would cost the local community its seat at the table. Local management, even when difficult, keeps decision making closer to the people who actually live and work around Menindee.

The Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has already approached the council about renewing its management commitment for a further three years, but the council's position is clear. No commitment will be made until the state agrees to fund the legal and administrative work needed to bring the trust's affairs into order.

For communities across the western region, including those in neighbouring Balranald and Carrathool shires who share many of the same land tenure complexities and Crown land management challenges, the outcome of these negotiations will be watched closely. The question of who carries the cost and responsibility for managing complicated Crown land assets is one that resonates well beyond the Menindee Lakes foreshore.