The petitions asserted that the Yolngu people owned land over which the federal government had granted mining rights to a private company, Nabalco.
Our response, in 1963, was to send a petition framed by painted bark to the Commonwealth Government demanding that our rights be recognised.
The petitions called on the House of Representatives to "appoint a Committee, accompanied by competent interpreters, to hear the views of the people of Yirrkala before permitting the excision" of the land for the mine and to ensure "that no arrangements be entered into with any company which will destroy the livelihood and independence of the Yirrkala people".
In its report, the Select Committee recommended that the Yirrkala people should be compensated for the loss of their traditional occupancy, by way of (1) land grant; (2) payment of at least the first A$300,000 received in mining royalties; and (3) direct monetary compensation, even though Aboriginal land rights were not expressly recognised under Northern Territory laws.
In 1971 Justice Richard Blackburn held that the ordinances and mining leases were valid and that the Yolngu people were not able to establish their native title at common law.
[13] The Milirrpum decision had wide-ranging impacts on relations between Aboriginal people and the mining industry generally throughout Australia.
[5] The fourth petition was found by historian Clare Wright at La Trobe University to be privately owned by the first wife of Stan Davey, who had been secretary of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement in 1963.
It was initially restored and conserved at Artlab Australia in Adelaide, before being repatriated to Arnhem Land, to go on permanent display at Buku-Larnŋgay Mulka Centre.