Stakeholder Engagement
on Pastoral Country
— Running Access for Gawler Craton Exploration

The Three Parallel Tracks

On a typical Gawler Craton tenement, three consent processes run in parallel and all three must be clean before drilling starts:

• Landholder consent — notice of entry, waiver of exemption, and compensation arrangements under the Mining Act 1971 (SA)
• Native title consent — either through a registered Indigenous Land Use Agreement or the statutory right to negotiate, depending on the tenement and the determined or claimed group
• Aboriginal heritage clearance — survey and avoidance obligations under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988 (SA), regardless of whether native title applies

These are not the same conversation with the same people. Treating them as interchangeable is one of the faster ways to stall a programme.

Track One: Landholder Access on Pastoral Leases

Most of the Gawler Craton is held under pastoral lease. On pastoral country, the lessee is the landowner for the purposes of Part 9 of the Mining Act 1971, which means the notice, objection, and compensation provisions apply in the same way they would on freehold.

Notice of Entry — Form 21

Before entering land to conduct authorised exploration operations, the tenement holder must serve a Notice of Entry (Form 21) on the landowner. The statutory minimum is 21 days under the older DEM guideline MG1, with the SACOME Land Access Guide 2020 recommending at least 28 days, and current industry practice now typically running 42 days. The longer timeframe is the safer operating assumption.

The notice must describe the proposed activities, the anticipated consequences, and the landowner's rights — including the right to claim compensation and to object. A landowner has three months from service to lodge a notice of objection in the Warden's Court, even after the notice period has expired and entry has occurred.

Notice of Use of Declared Equipment — Form 22

Declared equipment covers drill rigs, earthmovers, and most of what makes an exploration programme more than a mapping trip. A separate Form 22 must be served at least 21 days before that equipment is used. A landowner can object to Form 22 within three months on grounds of hardship.

Waiver of Exemption — Forms 23A & 23B

Some land within a tenement is exempt from exploration unless the landowner waives the benefit of the exemption. Under sections 9 and 9AA of the Mining Act, exempt land includes:

• Land within 400 metres of a dwelling
• Land within 150 metres of a water supply
• Cultivated fields, gardens, and orchards
• Other categories of improved land

On pastoral country this most commonly comes up at homestead complexes, shearers' quarters, bore sites, and stock water points. A Form 23A request, followed by a Form 23B agreement, is the route to accessing exempt land. The tenement holder is obliged to reimburse the landowner's legal costs up to $2,500 for considering the request.

Compensation

A landowner is entitled to compensation for all loss and damage suffered or likely to be suffered as a result of exploration operations. On pastoral leases, the compensation conversation usually centres on:

• Damage to or intensive use of existing station tracks
• Disruption to mustering, shearing, lambing, or other station operations
• Water used for drilling — where it comes from, how much, and at what cost
• Management time spent supervising, coordinating access, and dealing with unplanned incidents
• Fencing, gates, grids, and other infrastructure impacts
• Legal and professional fees reasonably incurred

If the parties cannot reach agreement, compensation claims can be referred to the Warden's Court, or to the Environment, Resources and Development Court for claims above $150,000. Contested matters are rare — most pastoral compensation agreements are negotiated directly, and the Land Access Dispute Resolution Code under the Fair Trading Regulations 2018 provides a mediation pathway where conversations stall.

Track Two: Native Title on the Gawler Craton

Nearly every Gawler Craton tenement falls within an area covered by a determined native title group or a registered claim. Running a programme without engaging the right process under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) is not an option.

Who Holds Native Title Where

Across the Gawler Craton and its margins, the principal determined or claimant groups to be aware of include:

• Kokatha People — determined 1 September 2014 (Starkey on behalf of the Kokatha People v State of South Australia [2014] FCA 924), covering large areas of the central Gawler Craton
• Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara — determined 11 May 2011 (Lennon [2011] FCA 474), covering the north of the craton including the Coober Pedy region
• Gawler Ranges People — determined 19 December 2011 (McNamara [2011] FCA 1471), covering the southern Gawler Ranges
• Arabana People — determined 22 May 2012 (Dodd v State of South Australia) and extended in 2021 (Stuart v State of South Australia (No 3) [2021] FCA 230), covering country to the north-east including the Lake Eyre South region
• Far West Coast — determined 5 December 2013 (Far West Coast Native Title Claim v State of South Australia (No 7) [2013] FCA 1285), covering the western margin and Nullarbor interface
• Barngarla — determined 23 June 2016 (Croft on behalf of the Barngarla Native Title Claim Group v State of South Australia) and extended on 24 September 2021 to include Port Augusta, covering the eastern Eyre Peninsula and Port Augusta region

Which group applies depends on the exact coordinates of the tenement. This is a desktop exercise that should be done at the same time as the sensitivity overlay for the EPEPR — not the week before the notice of entry is drafted.

The Gawler Ranges Mineral Exploration ILUA

Some of the hardest work on the Gawler Craton has already been done. The Gawler Ranges Mineral Exploration ILUA, registered in 2005, is a framework agreement between the State, SACOME, the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, and the Gawler Ranges Native Title Group. It provides consent to the grant of authorised exploration tenements and the conduct of authorised exploration activities, and substitutes for the right to negotiate procedure within the ILUA area.

For explorers, this means a standardised acceptance pathway — an executed acceptance document, a mapping survey procedure, and heritage clearance protocols — rather than a bespoke negotiation for each tenement. It does not, however, displace the Aboriginal Heritage Act obligations, which apply regardless.

Other parts of the Gawler Craton are outside the Gawler Ranges ILUA footprint and are covered by separate agreements or the right to negotiate. A Cultural Heritage Management Plan, a heritage access deed, or a tenement-specific exploration contract is often the operative instrument.

Track Three: Aboriginal Heritage Clearance

The Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988 (SA) protects Aboriginal sites, objects, and remains across the entire state — on freehold, pastoral, and Crown land alike. It operates independently of native title and applies whether native title has been determined, claimed, or neither.

Section 23 of the Act makes it an offence to damage, disturb, or interfere with an Aboriginal site, object, or remains without the authorisation of the Minister. For exploration, that means:

• A desktop review of the Central Archive of Aboriginal Sites and Objects for registered sites in the tenement area
• A field heritage clearance survey conducted with the relevant native title party or traditional owners in advance of ground-disturbing activity
• Avoidance strategies documented in writing where sites are identified, including buffers, exclusion zones, and track realignments
• A Section 23 authorisation where avoidance is not practicable and impact is unavoidable

The field clearance survey is typically the largest single variable in an access timeline. Surveys must be scheduled with the relevant heritage body or representative group, and available windows are often driven by weather, cultural calendars, and the availability of traditional owner knowledge holders. Four to eight weeks from request to completion is a reasonable planning assumption. It can stretch further.

The Sequence That Actually Works

The explorers who have the fewest access problems on Gawler Craton ground are usually running the three tracks in a deliberate sequence, not in a panic during the week before the rig arrives.

Two observations on that sequence. First, the statutory clocks — 42 days for the Form 21, 21 days for the Form 22, three-month objection windows — are end-stage triggers, not starting points. The relationship work that makes those clocks uncontroversial happens months earlier. Second, the heritage clearance survey is the single step most likely to compress the rest of the programme if it slips. Book it first.

Where Access Programmes Typically Stall

The patterns are consistent across jurisdictions:

• Landholder contact that starts with the Form 21 arriving in the mail — a notice before a conversation is read as a demand, not a process
• Exempt land overlooked at the desktop stage, with Form 23A requests chased in the fortnight before mobilisation
• Compensation agreements left open until after drilling starts, which weakens every subsequent negotiation on the tenement
• Heritage clearance treated as a checkbox rather than a logistical exercise with its own lead time
• Assumption that the applicable native title agreement is the same across the whole tenement, when the ILUA footprint, determination boundary, or claim boundary bisects the block
• Stakeholder engagement records kept as scattered emails rather than a structured consultation log — which the EPEPR conditions require

Where Sceptre Strategic Can Help

Land access and stakeholder engagement on pastoral country involves three regulatory frameworks and a set of relationships that cannot be rushed. Doing it well requires someone who knows the Mining Act, the Native Title Act, the Aboriginal Heritage Act, and — just as importantly — how station operations actually work week to week.

Sceptre Strategic provides land access and stakeholder engagement support including:

• Pre-award landholder and native title due diligence for ERA bidders and tenement acquirers
• Preparation and service of Form 21, Form 22, and Form 23A/B instruments under the SA Mining Act
• Negotiation and drafting of compensation and land access agreements with pastoral lessees
• Coordination of heritage clearance surveys with native title bodies and traditional owners
• Integration of land access and heritage obligations into the EPEPR and broader programme design
• Consultation record management aligned with EL conditions and EPEPR requirements
• Retained compliance officer services for operators without an in-country presence

We operate across all Australian jurisdictions. Travis Sickerdick, our principal, can be appointed as registered agent for exploration licences in any Australian state or territory.