The Toobeah Aboriginal land transfer controversy 2024-5
Contents
- Native Title in action
- Chronology
- Comments
- References
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Abstract: The Queensland Toobeah Aboriginal land transfer of 2025 to the Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation has provided conservative forces in Australia with the opportunity to attack land rights legislation and Indigenous initiatives in the area of land acquisition and management. The present article provides information on the transfer and examples of right wing reactions and rhetoric.
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1. Native Title in action
During late 2024 and on into 2025 conservative politicians and media outlets such as 2GB in Sydney and Topher Field in Victoria protested the Toobeah, Queensland, land transfer to the Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation. Opposition to the transfer was led in March 2024 by politicians such as Pauline Hanson and locals such as the town publican Michael Offerdahl. It also appeared in the following form on the Topher Field radio program on 22 September 2025, under a headline This must be stopped!
Field: It is hard to believe that in Australia you could wake up one day and find that your house, your land, your town, has been given away to an Aboriginal corporation, given that Australia said NO to the Voice. (Field 2025)
Topher Field, This must be stopped, because it can happen anywhere in Australia, TopherField, 22 September 2025, YouTube, duration: 16.15 minutes.
This sinister link between the two (Voice and land transfer) is not a good sign and is undoubtedly going to be pushed into the future.
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| Toobeah, Native Title claim. |
Toobeah is located on the Darling Downs approximately 400 km west-southwest of Brisbane, between Goondawindi and Bungunya. The Barwon Highway cuts through the town centre. It has a railway station, a hotel-motel, rodeo reserve, a small group of approximately fourteen houses around the hotel and store, is home to about thirty people and a GrainCorp storage facility. Land around Toobeah to the west, east and north is subject to a Native Title claim, as indicated on the Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation website.
Under the July 2024 Toobeah Master Plan, 210 hectares of the 220 hectare Toobeah Reserve was transferred to the Corporation under the Queensland Aboriginal Land Act 1991 late in 2025. The local Goondawindi Regional Council issued the following statement in regard to the process by which the land was transferred from state ownership, under the direction of the Minister. It is a Pontius Pilate statement, washing its hand of any responsibility:
There is currently a significant amount of deliberate misinformation circulating about the transfer of Aboriginal freehold land in the Toobeah area. The Queensland Government grants land to Aboriginal people under the Aboriginal Land Act 1991. Under the Act, the Minister makes decisions regarding the granting of land. The stock camping and watering reserve adjacent to Toobeah was owned by the State of Queensland. The decision regarding the transfer was made in its entirety by the State since the land was Crown (Queensland Government) land. The process of State decision-making and community engagement is through the Queensland Government and Minister respectively, not Goondiwindi Regional Council. Council was only ever the appointed Trustee of the Toobeah Reserve to manage and maintain the trust land on behalf of the Queensland Government. Just like a tenant cannot tell a landlord what to do with their property, Council had no authority in the decision.
Included with this statement on the council website were links to historical and legal documents connected with the transfer.
Treaty was brought into the discussion by Michael Offerdahl's reference in his March 2024 change.org petition supportive text, as follows:
The Queensland Labour Government (QLG) by way of the Queensland Resources Department (QRD), the Goondiwindi Regional Council (GRC) and Bigambul Aboriginal Corporation (BAC) have been in discussions for the past 5 years. These discussions have resulted in 95% of Toobeah being given to the BAC as aboriginal freehold. This includes the Toobeah common, Toobeah dump, Toobeah rodeo ground, Toobeah Hall reserve and access to all recreational areas as well as future prospects of town sewerage, portable water supply, etc. These discussions have all been confidential and have not included any community consultation. It appears this is the first effort of the QLD Labour Government to push through treaty legislation which prior to the Voice referendum was supported by both sides of politics in QLD. It took 70% of QLD voting no to division by race to make the QLD Liberal/National party (LNP) change their position and withdraw support for treaty. It would appear from the LNP’s silence at this moment that they may well still support the treaty process. We need QLD to help the LNP find their voice and stand up for our values and way of life. Please support our petition and efforts to ask for community consultation and help save QLD in the process. Toobeah today, your town tomorrow!
At the time of writing (22 September 2025) the petition has 6,864 signatories. A statement opposing the land transfer was also issued by Senator Pauline Hanson on 24 October 2024, as follows:
A Queensland town has lost its war on a “secret” land transfer deal to an Aboriginal group, but the publican who led the battle is refusing to stand down.
A Queensland country publican has lost his one-man battle to stop his tiny town’s reserve being handed over to an Indigenous corporation as freehold land, but has vowed to continue the fight against Aboriginal Land Act transfers happening across the state alongside Pauline Hanson. Michael Offerdahl, owner of the Toobeah Hotel near Goondiwindi, has been campaigning to prevent the town reserve from being given to the Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation. The corporation sought the 210 ha site under the Aboriginal Land Act which allows unallocated state land to be given to First Nations groups as “inalienable freehold”. Mr Offerdahl railed against the transfer, which he claimed would result in 95 per cent of the town and $2m worth of land being given away and restrict access to locals. This was hotly disputed by the Bigambul people, who said the reserve represented less than 1 per cent of the Toobeah district and was only meant to be used for travelling stock and camping. They also pledged to preserve a town water easement and rodeo grounds access on the reserve, on which it plans an “eco-cultural attraction”. But land titles records reveal the site was transferred to the BNTAC late last month, after the state government revoked the Goondiwindi Regional Council’s 118-year-old trusteeship of the reserve.
A furious Mr Offerdahl, who had slammed Goondiwindi mayor and state LNP president Lawrence Springborg’s tacit support of the land transfer, said the situation was ‘pretty s***’. “There’s only one way that they win this and that’s Springborg - the council did this to us,” he said. “The state government, the council, they haven’t backed up one thing. They haven’t even proven that (council) trusteeship (of the reserve) can be taken away. The council gave it up. You can’t take away trusteeship without talking to the community about it. It’s going to lock my kids out of the creek. They’ll have to go into an individual access agreement with a (Aboriginal) corporation in Cherbourg. We’ve been told we’ll have to go and have a yarn to them about swimming in our own fucking creek. It’s bullshit.”
Mr Offerdahl, who lodged an unsuccessful Ombudsman’s complaint about the council’s handling of the matter, also took aim at Southern Downs MP James Lister’s support for the land transfer which he said flew in the face of the LNP’s opposition to Queensland’s Path to Treaty. Mr Springborg has previously defended the Toobeah land transfer, saying claims locals would be losing a large slice of their town were “completely false” and “complete misrepresentation”.
“There is not one square metre of people’s private freehold land, or land that can be lawfully accessed by the community, that can be impacted by this,” he has said. “These (Aboriginal) land transfers have been happening in Queensland since 1991.” Mr Springborg said the Bigambul people had indicated they were “happy” to talk with Toobeah locals about giving them lawful access to the reserve which they currently did not have, “and there are members of the community who are keen to engage in that process”. He said the council would also negotiate with the Bigambul and state government to purchase native title-designated land in Toobeah for the town’s future expansion. Mr Springborg, a former LNP state leader and current party president, said the council had no control over the land transfer but he had told the government the process needed to be overhauled to provide better community engagement.
The Bigambul have taken a thinly-veiled swipe at Mr Offerdahl, saying he had known about the proposed land transfer for years. Earlier this year, the state government revealed that Aboriginal corporations and groups were seeking freehold land transfers in 15 towns across Queensland, from Mt Isa and Maryborough through to the tiny Cloncurry Shire township of Duchess which has just 53 people. The expressions of interest have sparked outcry in towns including Toobeah and Eurong and Happy Valley on K’gari (formerly Fraser Island).
The government also said that 6.7 million hectares of land, or 3.93 per cent of the state, had been transferred under the Aboriginal Land Act or Torres Strait Islander Land Act since 1991 - including 11 parcels of land transferred in 2023-24. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson slammed the land transfers as “taking place in secret” and vowed her party would seek to “get rid of the Aboriginal Land Act” if the party is re-elected next week. “The government and the council headed by Lawrence Springborg should apologise for keeping the Toobeah community in the dark while they actively worked against the community’s interests to transfer the land to some faceless indigenous corporation more than 400 km away,” she said. (Hanson 2025)
The confidentiality clause around the negotiations is the only problematic aspect of the process as outlined above, at least in the mind of the present writer. A reason for that confidentiality no doubt exists and will be presented here upon discovery. The transfer of the land to Aboriginal corporations is to be commended, and this model should be copied through other parts of Australia, especially in areas where land transfers have stalled or federal and state governments are not supportive of the process.
Pauline Hanson's declaration that she would, if in power, remove the Aboriginal Land Act 1991 is an ominous sign, reflecting much of the concern by conservatives across Australia around the issue of land and subjects such as Native Title.
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2. Chronology
This chronology presents a brief outline of the circumstances surrounding the land transfer, especially since the process begin in earnest during 2021.
1906
* The town of Toobeah is gazetted.
1911
* Toobeah Hotel built.
1991
* The Aboriginal Land Act 1991 (Qld) provides mechanisms for the transfer of land to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Queensland, granting them ownership of land to manage according to their traditions, recognizing the importance of land to their culture and economy. This land is transferred as inalienable freehold title, meaning it cannot be sold or mortgaged but is held in trust for the benefit of the connected community. The Act works in conjunction with the Torres Strait Islander Land Act 1991 and serves as a title return process, not to be confused with native title, which provides different rights and interests.
1992
* 3 June: High Court of Australia recognizes the existence of Native Title in Australia. Mabo v Queensland (No.2).
2009
* The process regarding Toobeah commences.
2016
* A Federal Court decision recognises the Bigambul People as native title holders of the majority of the Goondiwindi region.
2021
* The Toobeah freehold transfer process negotiations begin. They are confidential and primarily involve the applicants and the government. The local council was also consulted as temporary trustees of the land. Community consultation was not an obligatory part of the process under the Act.
2024
* 24 January: Council minutes reveal details of negotiations around transfer of the land.
* 17 March: A change.org petition is got up by Michael Offerdahl opposing the transfer.
* 20 March: Toobeah locals fire up at 'secret plan' to transfer '95 percent' of outback town to Aboriginal owners, news.com.au.
* 24 October: Pauline Hanson press release opposing the land transfer process.
2025
* September: The land is transferred to the Bigambul People.
* 22 September: Topher Field interviews Michael Offerdahl.
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3. Comments
It is noteworthy that Victorian radio commentator and YouTuber Topher Field should connect the VOICE referendum result with the Native Title Act and Queensland Aboriginal Land Act processes, suggesting that they were negated by the NO vote. Of course, this is in no way the case, and the two are not connected. It is a typical tactic, to confuse the public and conflate the subjects.
The Queensland ALP government is to be applauded for pushing through land transfers under the 1991 Act. The conservatives are to be criticised for their opposition to the implementation of the Act, in behaviour and commentary which is clearly racist.
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References
Chung, Frank, 20 March: Toobeah locals fire up at 'secret plan' to transfer '95 percent' of outback town to Aboriginal owners, news.com.au, 20 March 2024.
Field, Topher, This must be stopped, because it can happen anywhere in Australia, TopherField, 22 September 2025, YouTube, duration: 16.15 minutes.
Offerdahl, Michael, Help stop 95% of Toobeah QLD being transferred to Aboriginal Freehold! [petition], change.org, 17 March 2024.
Land controversy in Australia: Potential Aboriginal claim, 2GB Radio, Sydney, Tiktok, 2024, duration: 1.01 minutes.
Saunders on behalf of the Bigambul People v State of Queensland (No 2), Federal Court of Australia, FCA190, 11 March 2021. $40 billion compensation claim.
The Bigambul People, Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, n.d.
Toobeah Native Title and Aboriginal Land Transfer Information, Goondawindi Regional Council, Queensland, 2024.
Toobeah Freehold Land Transfer to Indigenous Corporation Approved, Pauline Hanson's One Nation, 17 October 2024.
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Last updated; 22 September 2025
Michael Organ, Australia
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