Native title is about land (and water) and the relationships with that land by both traditional owners and others with an interest in that land.

To facilitate engagement in the native title process clients, be they traditional owners, interest holders or proponents seeking to negotiate an activity on the land, have a common information requirement of knowing the where of native title over that area, together with the what, when and who characteristics.

As national custodian of native title information the National Native Title Tribunal has worked in partnership and collaboration with many jurisdictional data custodians to ensure that the Tribunal datasets not only reflect the currency with respect to the native title process but equally importantly that the data is spatially aligned (where required) to those underpinning framework datasets such as cadastre, physical topography and administration areas.

With a focus on data quality, including spatial integrity, the Tribunal has promoted ready and unabated access to its custodial spatial datasets and established delivery systems for both data and information that facilitates engagement in the process.

This presentation will cover the approach taken by the Tribunal with respect to spatial information and data, benchmark its performance as a data custodian, identify common issues and outline what's in progress on the data front to improve the clients engagement in the native title process that will contribute to more timely and effective outcomes.