Four Corners - Wik, the Law and the Land

The High Court judgement known as the WIK case turned traditional concepts of land ownership on their head by stating that Native Title could co-exist with pastoral leases. The judgement late in 1996 grew into a political furore over the holiday season developing into the main controversy at the beginning of 1997. This program looks at claims by the farmer lobby that pastoralists' activity would be impossible without clearer knowledge and greater certainty of land tenure. It also compares counter claims that the WIK judgement has merely confirmed a system of land tenure unique to Australia that has been in existence from the early colonial days.