Other Business

Joint Venture Developments
We must balance the protection of our culture with the need to generate wealth so that our people can access a broader range of life choices than they have at present.

We need to improve our housing, give economic and employment opportunities to our people and ensure our members can access proper education and health services.

If we’re to achieve this, we will have to do what other Australians have been doing – adding value to our assets. But we need to do this in a way that is consistent with our culture and respects the land, Metro Land Council Chairperson, Rob Welsh.

Before the coming of the Europeans, all of the Sydney basin was Aboriginal land. Following the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, we have only been able to claim back a small fraction of the land.

Although some of this land contains Aboriginal sites of significance, much of it does not. Many of our most important sites are on land that is not owned by Aboriginal people.

Aboriginal people are only able to claim vacant crown land not wanted for any other purpose. However, as Sydney has expanded the value of this land has increased. Much of the land owned by Metro is now located adjacent to existing urban development and are in strategic locations in terms of both infill and greenfields development.

Land granted to Metro can be given inalienable freehold title and can be developed, leased or sold. Metro covers over 20 Local Government Areas in the Sydney region. In many of these Local Government Areas we are now the largest single landholder.

Over the past five years, Metro has entered into a number of Joint Ventures to develop portions of our land. Our aim is to plough the profits from these developments back into our community. We have developed methods to ensure the protection of our interests and landholdings whilst offering fair and mutually beneficial outcomes. Any prospective developers seeking to enter into Joint Venture Agreements with Metro must undergo thorough background checks including financial, legal and criminal checks.

Metro has been collating information on the site constraints of a number of our claimed areas to approach the question of appropriate development of these lands in a more strategic manner. The aim of this more strategic approach is to maximize the benefit to Metro members.

Metro has a responsibility to protect the best interests of our members. We actively seek to do this in a number of ways, including providing future economic stability by way of developing some landholdings. We are currently creating a developer database for reference in relation to future targeted Metro lands. You can register your interest in a particular area by sending an introductory letter and information package to the Office. If a particular area of land becomes targeted for development you may be contacted by Metro.