More than three decades ago Ernie Gordon's father made a claim over a parcel of dusty scrub land in outback New South Wales. He is now dead and his claim is still unresolved.
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It is the oldest of more than 28,000 Aboriginal land claims that remain undetermined by the state government.
The latest figures show that 73 per cent of claims lodged under the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act are waiting to be settled.
Introduced in 1983, the act created a network of Aboriginal land councils which were entitled to claim unused and unneeded crown land.
Mr Gordon's father, also named Ernie Gordon, submitted his claim for about 8000 acres in 1984, when he was chairman of the local land council in the small rural town of Brewarrina.
The Crown Lands Office acknowledged receipt of claim No. 1043 four months later in an official letter that said it had been referred for "urgent investigation and report".
Mr Gordon senior died before a result was determined and nearly 31 years later his son, who had forgotten the claim existed until contacted by the Herald, is now eager to see it resolved.
The Auditor-General last year estimated that it would take the state government 122 years to clear the backlog of land claims at the current rate at which they are being determined.
In a bid to address the backlog, new amendments to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act were passed last year to allow the state government and land councils to negotiate voluntary agreements about claims without having to go through the current determination process.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Leslie Williams said it was important for claims to be addressed "as quickly and efficiently as possible", and the amended legislation provided a new way to deal with claims that were complex or had been unresolved for some time.
Yet how effective these agreements will be when they come into force in July remains to be seen.
The state government has not set any firm targets for reducing the backlog or committed any additional resources to the agreement-making process.
It is also unclear if the government would actively initiate negotiations over older claims, like the Brewarrina dispute, which had been forgotten because the original claimants had died.
NSW Aboriginal Land Council deputy chairman Roy Ah-See said the agreements were a start but "unchartered territory was being entered".
"The proof is going to be in the pudding. It will depend if the government comes to the negotiating table with a commitment to clear the backlog and to treat us as equal partners or if they come with the mentality of 'the land isn't theirs' and use this as just another stalling tactic," he said.
"We've had many fighters that have left legacies fighting for what is rightfully theirs and sadly they have never seen the fruits of their labour because of these delays."
The independent registrar of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, Stephen Wright, said proper resourcing would be the key to the success of the amendments.
"I will be very interested and concerned to watch how both parties approach these negotiations because these sorts of negotiations will be resource intensive and will require a degree of frankness and co-operation that has not been seen in the past," he said.
Mr Gordon said he had strong emotional and spiritual ties to the land for which his father had lodged a claim and was determined to see it resolved.
While the struggling Brewarrina land council has gone into administration, it is hoped the claim might unite and activate the local Indigenous population once again.
The land has not changed significantly since the claim was lodged. It is still crown land, has no structures built on it, and is largely made up of reserves and travelling stock routes.
Both the Department of Primary Industries and the Brewarrina land council said they would look to make a voluntary agreement to settle the claim when the amendments take effect.
When asked why the matter had taken so long to resolve, a department spokesman said the parties had previously discussed the need for negotiation but at the time the act had not allowed for such a process.
"We're still fighting. My word we're passionate about it," Mr Gordon said.
He can only hope that, unlike his father, he will see the claim resolved in his lifetime.
