Gale, Dennis Charles v Minister for Land & Water Conservation for the State of New South Wales & Ors [1998] FCA 766

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

NEW SOUTH WALES DISTRICT REGISTRY NG 6004 of 1998

BETWEEN: Dennis Charles Gale

Applicant

AND: Minister for Land and Water Conservation for the State of New South Wales

First Respondent

New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council

Second Respondent

Deerubbin Local Aboriginal Land Council

Third Respondent

JUDGE(S): MADGWICK

DATE: 1 JULY 1998

PLACE: SYDNEY

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT (revised from transcript) HIS HONOUR: In this matter there was filed a notice of motion by dominicWYkanak to be joined in the proceedings as an interested party and he purports to seek various orders that the Court may or may not have jurisdiction to award. By facsimile at 9:09 am there arrived at the Court a document which reads as follows:

"Urgent attention, Federal Court of Australia. - ....... Dear Registrar - Would you please inform the court that due to illness I am unable to attend court this morning for NG 6004 and 6001 and that I seek adjournment of my matters until I'm well or have a next friend to appear for me." There is a word we can't decipher but it seems to be directing or asking that the matter be brought to the attention of my Associate and to that of the respondents. It is unsigned.

The handwriting may or may not be the same hand as that, apparently, of Mr Kanak who signed his notice of motion and lodged it, and also a document being a supposed "statement of customary and cultural concerns of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islands", but the insouciance is familiar. The number of these proceedings is 6004 of 1998. As it happens I am also concerned in matter number 6001 of 1998 which is an appeal by Mr Kanak in relation to a similar kind of matter in which he was unsuccessful at first instance in this Court, that is in seeking to be joined as a party to some native title proceedings.