The cadastral model has played a key role in Indigenous dispossession in settler states. Yet, the recognition of Indigenous land rights frequently requires Indigenous communities to directly engage with this spatial model. Based on a recently published paper, this presentation draws examples from a research partnership with Nyamba Buru Yawuru, the corporate arm of the Yawuru Registered Native Title Holders Body Corporate of Broome, Western Australia. Specifically, this presentation explores the potential of using a fuzzy index modelling approach as a common language to communicate Indigenous values and facilitate negotiation in a post native title foreshore environment. It demonstrates how the technical apparatus of GIS can contribute to post native title governance and shows how overlay techniques can reduce information asymmetries and facilitate the allocation of limited resources. It argues that there is a need to further explore different forms and applications of fuzzy modelling in Indigenous contexts.

Longwall mining subsidence is regarded as predictable and immediate by those working in the area. In NSW, the practice occurs predominantly in the Hunter and Illawarra regions of the Sydney coal basin. The impacts of subsidence of anthropocentric concern have long been addressed by legislation and planning processes in NSW. However, impacts on environmental systems are less-well-regulated and accordingly some of the most adverse and enduring impacts of longwall mining subsidence are on the habitats of non-human life and the geohydrological systems supporting it. The differentiated regulatory provisions and remedies for the effects of longwall subsidence impacts along an axis of anthropocentric concern reflect an outdated world view; unsupported by scientific knowledge; at odds with the basic principles of environmental law, and; with substantial risks and consequences for geohydrological systems and processes. This article explores the roles of state and non-state actors in (and against) the current regulation of longwall mining in NSW: and; the potential but unlikely application of the EPBC (Cth) ‘water trigger.’ The contention is that the geohydrological risks and consequences of the current regulation of longwall mining in NSW demonstrate the manifestly inadequate practices of regulatory capitalism.