Julia was motivated to complete her Master of Laws (LLM) after discussions with her mentor Chris McLaughlin. Chris at the time was Julia’s manager at the Torres Strait Island Regional Council. He is completing a PhD with the UNE School of Law. After highly recommending UNE to Julia, she also chose to enrol at the highly regarded university.

Since this time, Julia has been promoted to be the Manager of Legal Services at the Torres Strait Island Regional Council. As part of her job, Julia completes contract work, compliance, property law, native title and home ownership.

The council is responsible for local government functions for 15 communities located across 14 islands in the Torres Strait region. Council is the land trustee for 12 of these islands. Administrative responsibilities as a trustee for two islands have been transferred to indigenous corporations that also represent the native title rights and interests on behalf of traditional owners for those communities.

Whilst completing her masters degree, Julia focused on subjects relating to natural resource governance and indigenous legal issues. As part of the Research Project unit in the LLM, Julia wrote a paper relating to land and home ownership options in the Torres Strait islands. Marcelle Burns from the UNE School of Law, who acted as Julia’s supervisor, encouraged her to seek publication of the paper.

Julia’s trip to Dauan in February 2018 for a community meeting.

Julia followed Marcelle’s advice and her article entitled ‘The Australian Dream: Is Ordinary Freehold the Last and Best Home-Ownership Option for Torres Strait Islanders?’ has recently been published in the Australian Indigenous Law Review.  The article explores the options available for home and land ownership in the Torres Strait Islands for its residents.

Julia whilst on a trip to Ugar in August 2015 for the Infrastructure and Traditional Boundary Resolution Project.

Even though on the surface, re-classifying the land to freehold sounds like the most equitable and fair thing to do, there are possible problems with this. When land is freehold title, there is a risk traditional lands will be sold on the open market. Converting the land to freehold title makes the use and enjoyment of land very individualistic, whereas indigenous communities are traditionally communal. It will also extinguish any native title rights and interests.

On the other hand, there is a potential opportunity for economic development and independence. Also most people aspire to owning their own land/home rather than renting it.

At the moment the land in these traditional communities is unavailable to the open market. Entitlements are granted through perpetual leases and it is possible to apply for a 99-year home-ownership lease.

When we asked Julia about her recommendations, she noted ‘it is important to determine what the communities want. In order to ascertain this, the communities need all of the information to be able to make an informed decision.’ She notes that ‘the issue is complicated by high unemployment statistics, lower than average life expectancy and a high cost of living.’

Even though Julia is based in Cairns, she has visited the Torres Strait on many occasions. Julia thinks ‘the Torres Strait islands are magnificent. The water is turquoise and the beaches are beautiful.’

Julia at her LLM graduation in April 2017, with the Torres Strait Islander flag.

She notes the culture on the islands is also fascinating. The traditional Torres Strait communities are heavily influenced by the missionaries who first visited the area in the 1870s. When the community meets, they start with Opening Prayers and an Acknowledgement to Country. From a legal perspective, Julia is fascinated there is both the conventional Australian legal system and a traditional legal system running in tandem within the community. In fact, a large part of Julia’s job is working with the intersection between the two legal systems.

Julia is passionate about protecting our natural environment. She cycles everywhere and in 2016 cycled from Cairns to Karumba. Some of you may have heard of Boomerang Bags. In Queensland there is a ban on single use plastic bags. Volunteers use donations of fabric in order to make reusable bags. Julia volunteers each month to make some of these bags.

On Sunday afternoons, Julia can be found playing her fiddle at McGinty’s Irish Bar. She also plays in the Chamber Orchestra in Cairns.

Thank you for sharing your story with us Julia!