A five-year delay determining land claims on the Thredbo River is frustrating the Aboriginal community.
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NSW Aboriginal Land Council South Coast Region councillor Jack Hampton said if a local developer was forced to wait five months - let alone five years - for certainty over their proposal, there would be understandable outrage in the community.
Two claims in 2006 and 2010 have been made on Paddy Corner Reserve, a popular trout fishing area near Jindabyne.
Monaro Acclimatisation Society is objecting to the claims, but president Steve Samuels said if they were successful, he was sure anglers could work out access arrangements with the owners.
Mr Hampton said Aboriginal people had no control over the land claims process and more than 26,000 undetermined land claims were sitting in the system.
''The O'Farrell Government has inherited a mess left by its predecessors. It is in the interests of the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities of NSW for certainty around these issues to be provided,'' he said.
Mr Samuels said charging access to the land would not be received well among his members, because they stocked rivers at no charge, but people might not object to being charged to camp on reserves.
''We'd hope that if they were successful, the land council would sit down with us and discuss access,'' he said.