Messy dispute erupts after Aboriginal group is given prime piece of real estate in one of the country’s most sought after suburbs in Sydney

A stunning piece of Sydney real estate gifted to an Aboriginal group years ago is still the subject of dispute as the battle has ended up in the High Court.

The Paddington Bowling Club, located 4km south-east of Sydney’s CBD, closed in 2015 and was reclaimed as Crown land in 2021, which the government then quickly transferred to the La Perouse Aboriginal Land Council.

But the 7,788m2 site – including a clubhouse, bowling greens and adjacent tennis courts – was at the time leased by a company called Quarry Street, then run by Jan Cameron, the founder of outdoor clothing brand Kathmandu.

Ms Cameron, who lives in Tasmania, earned $247 million when she sold her 51 percent stake in Kathmandu to a US investment firm in 2006 and retired from the company, making her Australia’s fourth richest woman.

The businesswoman and philanthropist is no longer involved with Quarry Street as she is embroiled in a legal dispute of her own after being fined for exploiting a Caribbean tax haven to hide $14 million worth of shares in a baby food company.

Ms Cameron has appealed, saying her company which bought the shares, the Elsie Cameron Foundation, ‘isn’t paying any tax anyway… people who think this is tax avoidance are completely mistaken’.

Ms Cameron has been contacted for further comment.

Quarry Street, now run by Hobart lawyer Ben Swain, has challenged the transfer of the Paddington Bowling Club land to the Indigenous group in the Land and Environment Court.

That court upheld the transfer, but Quarry Street successfully challenged that ruling in the New South Wales Court of Appeal.

The La Perouse Aboriginal Land Council was granted special leave to appeal that decision this week, setting the stage for a showdown in the High Court. The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A dispute over whether a private company or an Aboriginal group will have control of the site will be decided by the High Court later this year

Aboriginal land rights have been in the news a lot lately.

An Indigenous company opposing the construction of a $1 billion gold mine in the New South Wales outback unsuccessfully attempted to have every creek, lake and river in the same area registered as Aboriginal heritage.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek recently blocked the proposed location of a tailings dam for the gold mine in Blayney, in the state’s central west.

In mid-August, she issued a protection order for indigenous heritage, rejecting the planned construction of the dam at the mine.

The Wiradjuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation has asked the Minister to protect the headwaters and sources of the Belubula River, as these sites play a central role in creation stories.

That’s despite the fact that the NSW Independent Planning Commission originally approved the mine in March 2023, a process that involved consultation with the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council, the elected body for local Indigenous leaders.

In 2021, Lisa Paton, a director of the Wiradjuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation, attempted to have all waterways in Blayney registered as Aboriginal sites by the state’s Office of Environment & Heritage. The Australian reported.

“This (application) applies to ALL NATURAL waterways within the Blayney Shire Council Region, including all waterways that are no longer flowing, 100 metres either side of waterways, rivers, creeks, wetlands and lakes,” she wrote in her application, which was ultimately rejected.