Steeleredux, for legal purposes it doesn’t matter if the land is individually owned or owned by a corporate body. It is still not public land that is controlled by the government.
Many of the problems arising with housing, especially in the past, before the government got leases is that public housing bodies had no control over rents, maintenance and repairs or evictions. In fact, many times government workers from different departments were banned from even entering the land in question.
As I said, nowhere else do people get a government funded house on their private land.
The good side of this is there are no building regulations so people can build themselves whatever type of building they want, from a tent, tin hut or mansion.
There is nothing stopping aboriginal people doing what pastoralists and others have done, that is build from whatever resources are locally available, be it timber, rock or clay to make bricks.
One European family in the Kimberley who own and run a large pearl farm and tourist resort raised their children in bough sheds made from concrete floors, wire mesh walls and paperbark roofs. They then grew creepers over the whole structure to provide insulation and more protection. I saw this structure in the 80s and was really impressed.
These days of course they are rich and have beautiful European style housing but they started off very simple and lived off the land for many years until their pearl farm was viable.
Funnily enough, some of their early workers were aboriginal people from two neighbouring communities who never thought to replicate the housing idea on their own land.

Hasbeen, thanks for the 'heads up' on the issue of govt contracts. Now I finally know where and how they 'skim'. These principal contractors must be the ones with the 'in' factor. They become 'preferred' suppliers or tenderers and that is where the skimming must take place. The prices on all govt contracts are so over-inflated, it beggars belief. I am angered when I hear of another tax or way to extract more money out of us, when I know that all that's required is a culling of these current methods of issuing contracts so that we either get to the end provider without any 'middle men' or demand the govt scrutinise these deals a lot closer. Most prices I hear, such as the making of a road, is just plain theft. I recall one number I heard many years ago, was $1,000,000 or so per kilometre to build a road. Theft, pure theft. There is no other way of describing it, and yet I hear nothing in way of challenges or scrutinee. Everyone just sits back and quotes the worn out mantra, 'it's their problem, not ours, it's what we pay them for'. What, to steal? I would love to see a royal commission on the issuing of govt contracts, it would be a wonderful revelation to finally punish those habitual govt thieves, once and for all.

Steele,

Most Aboriginal settlements, a.k.a. 'communities', are run by a council which is an incorporated body. That incorporated body therefore has responsibility for the operations on the settlement, including housing, since individuals can't own any of the land or, currently, lease any of it. So they can't slap a house on any of the land there and own it (even if the land on which the house sits is leased to the home-owner for, say, 50 or 99 years), that's the council's job.

So governments take on the responsibilities of an incorporated body which otherwise they would be responsible for. That probably trims down the definition of 'self-determination' somewhat, but until some bright spark comes up with the idea of, I don't know, leasing land for housing maybe, that's the way it will stay.

Joe

I have spoken with people who actually asked the Dept of housing to pay rent for the land the house is on. Then there were houses that people had to pay rent for several months before they could move in because the Dept engaged "engineers' had not connected water tanks so the occupier had no acces to water because the mains are only on for a few hours every second day.
Housing in such communities has been & still is a goldmine for contractors, a headache for bureaucrats & a frustration for the tennants.
I have personally called the "blue" phone for housing to request water be connected or severe leaks be attended to only to be told 'you need to call the blue phone' & when I told them I already done so several times, I was told there was no record.
Irresponsible people are on both sides of the fence & usually the ones on good salaries are the ones in charge of the hurdles being put up.
Community housing is a bureaucratic dream/nightmare depending on which side you're on.