Greenwood J
The Kowanyama People were granted an order for a consent determination determining native title rights and interests in their land and waters. The orders related to land and waters on the western side of Cape York Peninsula bounded in the north by the Coleman River, in the south by the Rutland Plains pastoral lease, in the east by the Mitchell-Alice Rivers National Park and in the west by the Gulf of Carpentaria together with coastal land bounded in the north by the southern bank of the Coleman River, in the south to a point south of the Staaten River and in the east to a line generally following the high water mark, and in the west to a line in the waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria which approximates a water depth to which a grown Kowanyama person can wade at low tide.
Rights and interests
In relation to part of the Determination Area exclusive rights to possession, occupation, use and enjoyment were recognised. In relation to other parts, the Kowanyama People were recognised as having non-exclusive rights to be present on, light fires, take, use, share and exchange traditional natural resources for non-commercial, cultural, spiritual, personal, domestic or communal purpose and maintain places of importance and areas of significance. Non-exclusive rights to use water were also recognised in particular, rights to hunt and fish in or on, and take and use, water for non-commercial cultural, spiritual, personal, domestic or communal purposes.