Land owners have granted access to high use inter-tidal waters affected by the Blue Mud Bay decision, which will remain open at least through to 31 December 2022.

Fishers wanting to access some of these areas will now simply need to register on the Northern Land Council’s website.

Registration for fishing will be valid until December 2022 and will be approved immediately. Registration is also free of charge.

Fishing tour operators who have existing arrangements with land owners are unaffected and separate arrangements are in place for commercial fishers.

In more good news, access to the following key fishing areas will remain registration-free for all anglers:

·         Darwin Harbour

·         Bynoe Harbour

·         parts of the Finniss River (see maps at www.nlc.org.au)

·         Dundee Beach

·         the Adelaide River

·         the Mary River, including Sampan, Tommy Cut and the Chambers Bay coastal creeks

·         the Wildman River

·         the Daly River, including the Reynolds River

·         the McArthur River and the Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands

·         the Vernon Islands

·         the Victoria River

·         the Fitzmaurice River

·         the bottom half of the Tiwi Islands

·         parts of the Nhulunbuy coastline

·         parts of the Wadeye coastline

During the next two years, the Northern Land Council will continue to work with land owners around long-term permanent access arrangements.

Areas that are currently only accessible by vehicle with a transit permit can still be applied for with the NLC.

The NLC has acted strongly on behalf of land owners, who were granted ownership over much of the Territory’s coastline in 2008 by the High Court and we thank the NLC for ongoing work ensuring Territory anglers have so much access to Aboriginal owned waters.

While the Northern Territory Government will continue to pursue long-term permanent fishing access to the areas that fishers use, the decisions on access ultimately rest with the land owners.