Permits for visiting Aboriginal land.
If you are planning on visiting Aboriginal lands it is essential that you get a permit for any travel on or across Indigenous-owned land. These permits protect the privacy of indigenous communities and help to preserve the Australian Aboriginal culture and history and they also help to protect the natural environment. It is not only to protect the people and the land, but these permits are in place to also protect the traveller.
The permits don't cost you any money, and this is a legal requirement of the AAPA, if you are being charged for a permit, you are being scammed, you need to get your permits and licenses through official pathways, you need to contact the Department of Indigenous Affairs to get permission to travel. The permits are granted for a period of time that allows for travel time through the reserve by the most direct route. If you want to travel off the main road and explore you need to be granted a separate permission grant which can be obtained from the resident Indigenous communities when you enter the reserve.
Two applications will need to be submitted, one to the Central Land Council and the other to the Aboriginal Land trust. Give yourself enough time to get a response before you plan to travel through these areas, it takes up to three weeks for your application to be processed. It is the right of the traditional owners to refuse entry to any traveller. Without further permission you are prohibited to divert off the main road.
You will be fined if you break the rules or travel through the area without a permit.
Remember, it's for your own safety and the protection of the community. You can contact the Department of Indigenous affairs through their website: http://www.dia.wa.gov.au/
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