Gnaraloo Station owner’s long wait for State Government to honour an agreement, caught up in red tape.

The owner of Gnaraloo Station — a popular tourism destination in the Gascoyne — has voiced frustrations over the wait for the State Government to honour its side of an agreement made 13 years ago as part of the Ningaloo Coastal Strategy. Gnaraloo lease owner Paul Richardson surrendered a 2km strip along 62km of coastal land for the marine park, in exchange for the right to expand the area he could operate tourism from, close to Gnaraloo homestead. Native title on those lands was to be extinguished by a Notice of Intention to Take Land. But Mr Richardson claims he is still waiting for the State Government to deliver. A change in how native title agreements are met since the agreement was made seems to be behind the continued delay. Mr Richardson said he had been batted between government departments when he attempted to resolve the issue. He claims it has cost him millions of dollars in lost productivity and it has prevented him from expanding his operations, because his business relied on certainty of the underlying land, and he had multimillion-dollar plans to build more facilities. Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan was planning minister in 2007 when the agreement was struck. Two years ago she told The West Australian she would work with the Lands Department to resolve it. A government official said to address the native title issues an Indigenous Land Use Agreement had been agreed that allows for the amalgamations and grant of easements on the basis of a native title suppression instead of extinguishment. The ILUA was to be executed this year but has been delayed. The issue between the two parties is whether or not native title should be extinguished in the extended lease areas. “The Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage has continued to consult with the lessee on the draft easement conditions,” the State Government spokesman said. “If the proposed easements cannot be agreed upon, the lessee will need to negotiate with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, as the future management body, regarding access to and use of pastoral lease infrastructure in the excision area.”