An Aboriginal organization objected to the salvaging of a Sydney-to-Hobart racing boat because it was left on a lonely island off the coast of Tasmania and is now allegedly owned by Indigenous people.
Weeks after it was abandoned and washed ashore owing to a damaged rudder, the race participant Huntress was retrieved from a strong wave break and hauled away from Cape Barren, also known as Truwana, on Monday.
However, Michael Mansell, the chairman of the Aboriginal Territory Council of Tasmania, told the ABC that no permission had been granted for the Huntress to be moved and that “any boats wrecked… on the borders of Aboriginal land belong to Aborigines.”
According to Aboriginal law, the Huntress is now Aboriginal people’s property since it washed ashore on the beaches of Aboriginal territory on Cape Barren, he told the national television.
“The ancient people always applied Aboriginal customary law to everything that washed up on the beaches of Aboriginal territory” is how one Aboriginal person described it when the white people drove them off their land in Tasmania and forced them to live on islands.
Mr. Mansell highlighted a number of wrecked boats that he said had been transferred into Aboriginal hands and claimed that the Aboriginal right of salvage on the land has been recognized since 1920.
Brent Dowton, the owner of the Huntress, has been approached for comment.
Mr. Dowton expressed his gratitude for the vessel’s salvage in a Facebook post to Total Dive Solutions and its subcontractor Total Marine Solutions.
The statement said, “We will be coordinating Huntress’s repairs with our insurance to bring her back to her former grandeur.”
Although it could take many months to finish, we are eager to get started.
Total Dive Solutions expressed “particular” gratitude to “the Cape Barren Island Indigenous community leaders for their consent and local site expertise” in a different Facebook post.
A destroyed vessel still belongs to its owners under the common law of salvage, but under certain conditions, salvagers may be entitled to a payment.
The Huntress’ crew abandoned ship on December 28 after losing its rudder after departing Sydney on December 26.
Before arriving on Cape Barren Island on January 4, the ship was reported as a possible shipping hazard after being sighted floating by a cruise ship on January 2.
»Aboriginal Tasmanians claim Sydney-to-Hobart yacht Huntress as theirs«