The Aboriginal land council estate presents a significant opportunity for the NSW Government to achieve its renewable energy targets.

Across NSW, there is huge potential for Aboriginal land to be part of rapid renewable energy development. Local Aboriginal Land Councils (Aboriginal land councils) control most of the Aboriginal land estate in NSW, but much of the land estate is remote and difficult to service with existing power networks. Many land councils express increasing interest in hosting energy projects on their lands to achieve a range of social and economic outcomes.

To date, the Aboriginal land council estate in NSW has not been actively used in the energy transition. This has limited both Aboriginal participation in the renewable energy transition and the realisation of social and economic benefits for Aboriginal communities. Activating the renewable energy potential of the Aboriginal land council estate would create a new avenue for renewable development in NSW and meet the aspirations of the NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap and its associated First Nations Guidelines. Aboriginal land council participation is critical to the delivery of the Australian Government’s First Nations Clean Energy Strategy 2024–2030 and the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (Closing the Gap).

Aboriginal land councils in NSW own and manage 447km2 of land estate, with future Aboriginal land claims amounting to 7,438km2. From a technical perspective, the entire current land estate (447km2) is suitable for solar, which is equivalent to 11GW of renewable energy (installed capacity) while 326km2 is suitable for wind energy projects equivalent to 1.6GW of renewable energy potential (installed capacity).

If outstanding Aboriginal land claims are granted, the renewable energy potential of the Aboriginal land council estate will increase by approximately 19 times for solar energy projects, and approximately 22 times for wind energy projects.

Authors: Professor Heidi Norman, Dr Chris Briggs, Dr Ed Langham, Therese Apolonio, Dr Saori Miyake, Dr Sarah Niklas, Dr Sven Teske, 'Local Aboriginal Land Council Powershift — Sharing the benefits of the energy transition’, June 2025

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It is estimated that 43% of all clean energy infrastructure required to get Australia to net zero emissions will be sited on land under the care or control of First Nations.

First Nations communities will be significantly impacted by, and critical to, decarbonisation. The Indigenous Estate should be accessed by agreement with First Nations communities.

First Nations ownership and equity models are essential, alongside genuine partnerships that have deep levels of trust, reconciliation efforts, and a sense of community. Benefit-sharing must start early (before impacts are felt), to build and sustain trust, and maintain momentum.

Best practice frameworks for clean energy projects such as, First Nations Better Practice Community Engagement and the First Nations Clean Energy Network, should be used across all projects impacting the Indigenous Estate. Factors including a commitment to cultural heritage and land stewardship, protecting Country, sharing economic and social benefits through strategic partnerships, and ensuring cultural competency.

This Mobilisation Report was put together by Net Zero Australia, in partnership with The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland, Princeton University and NOUS, and was published in July 2023.

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Australia’s Pilbara and Kimberley regions have very high rates of Indigenous land tenure, whilst hosting some of world’s best co-located solar and wind energy resources. Simultaneously, technological advances in energy transmission and distribution raises the possibility of renewable energy export into Southeast Asia.

This paper builds upon previous work (O’Neill, L., Thorburn, K. and Hunt, J. (2019), Ensuring Indigenous benefit from large-scale renewable energy projects: Drawing on experience from extractive industry agreement making, Working Paper No. 127, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University, Canberra) in considering the opportunities and risks of renewable energy developments for Indigenous communities in these regions. It considers renewable energy developments at two different scales – utility-scale and smaller dispersed models, finding that communities are more likely to obtain broader social and economic benefits from developments in which they have a significant financial stake and have power over aspects of development.

Proponents of utility-scale developments may negotiate agreements to offer Indigenous people access to energy, financial compensation for land use, or a stake in ownership. Yet, in considering research from the extractives industry in relation to agreement making we find that broader social and economic benefits for communities are often less than predicted.

Research from Canada that looks at the potential for Indigenous ownership of smaller scale renewable energy developments to address local need and benefit, highlights the importance of First Nations’ voices in discussions of regional economic development associated with the coming energy transition.

Authors: Thorburn K., O’Neill L., Hunt J., Riley B., (2019), Renewable energy projects on the Indigenous estate: Identifying risks and opportunities of utility-scale and dispersed models, Working Paper no. 130, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University, Canberra.

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