Lara McQuaid
Special Counsel | Brisbane
Native Title and Indigenous Cultural Heritage
Lara undertakes native title and Indigenous cultural heritage work for a wide range of stakeholders, including project proponents, native title representative bodies and native title service providers, registered native title bodies corporate, native title holders and claimants and Commonwealth, State and local governments.
Lara assists and advises clients in the negotiation and drafting of a wide variety of Indigenous land use agreements, native title project and ancillary agreements, cultural heritage management plans and agreements and related documentation.
Lara represents clients in mediations, conferences and Court proceedings, having experience in the Federal Court, Queensland Supreme Court, Queensland Land Court, National Native Title Tribunal, Planning and Environment Court and Magistrate’s Court, as well as in interstate jurisdictions such as the NSW Land and Environment Court.
Lara regularly undertakes complex advice work and has particular experience advising clients, in a range of jurisdictions, on the interrelationship between native title, Indigenous cultural heritage, Aboriginal land claims, property, mining and planning legislation.
In addition to native title and cultural heritage, Lara has an extensive background in planning, environment and local government law as well as the mining and infrastructure space.
Experience
Lara’s experience includes:
- Native title assisting and advising on the negotiation and drafting of a range of Indigenous land use agreements and native title project agreements for major mining, infrastructure and renewables projects, predominantly in Queensland and Western Australia;
- Native Title advising in relation to the existence and extinguishment of native title, native title compensation and future act processes under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth);
- Native Title undertaking internal and external reviews of decisions made by native title representative bodies and native title service providers;
- Native Title acting for respondent parties to native title claimant applications and related proceedings in Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales;
- Native Title advising on governance issues in relation to registered native title bodies corporate; and
- Cultural Heritage representing both proponents and traditional owners in relation to the development of cultural heritage management plans (and their approval) and cultural heritage management agreements for residential and mixed use developments, major project developments, mining, exploration, infrastructure and renewables projects, as well as the carriage of related matters in the Land Court.