Wikipedia:WikiProject Squatting/Draft/Squatting in Oceania



Squatting in Oceania

Overview
Oceania is composed of the island countries of Australia and New Zealand and the subregions of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. In the subregions, particularly Melanesia, almost half people living in urban areas occupy squatted land and informal settlements.

customary land

Australia
In the 19th century, the British government claimed to own all of Australia and tried to control land ownership. Wealthy farmers of livestock claimed land for themselves and thus were known as squatters. This type of squatting is covered in greater detail at Squatting (Australian history). During the late 1940s the squatting of hundreds of empty houses and military camps, forced federal and state governments to provide emergency shelter during a period when Australians faced a shortage of more than 300 000 homes. In more recent times, Australia has seen occupations in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney. The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was set up in 1972 in Canberra and is a permanent protest occupation. With the 2016 Bendigo Street housing dispute in Melbourne, squatters successfully contested road-building plans. The Midnight Star squat was used as a self-managed social centre in a former cinema in Sydney, before being evicted after being used as a convergence space during the 2002 World Trade Organization meeting.


 * Squatting in New Zealand

Melanesia
Melanesia includes the states of Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. Between 40 and 50 percent of people living in urban areas occupy [squatted land and informal settlements.


 * REDIRECT: Squatting in West Papua / Squatting in Nauru / Squatting in Papua New Guinea


 * https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/bougainville-referendum-and-beyond
 * https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/pacific/187599/world-vision-warns-against-evicting-squatters-in-papua-new-guinea's-madang

Micronesia
Informal settlements in Kiribati are known as squatter settlements, the same as in Fiji and Samoa. Unlike most Pacific Island countries, it is possible to sell or buy customary land in Kiribati. Zoning laws are not implemented by the government and not widely recognised by local people. On the island of Kiritimati, squatters live in both villages and on old Burns Philp copra plantations.
 * Currently at Squatting
 * Bikenibeu


 * Squatting in Marshall Islands
 * Squatting in Palau


 * Federated States of Micronesia - https://www.jstor.org/stable/43197168
 * The Federated States of Micronesia is made up of four states, namely Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap. Land ownership is mainly customary and inherited. Foreigners are not permitted to be owners. When Yapese outer islanders move to Yap Proper, they are either allotted land by the council or start squatting. Likewise, Chuukese outer islanders moving to the capital Weno become squatters.

New Zealand

 * Land Information New Zealand
 * Housing in New Zealand

In the 1850s, much of New Zealand was colonised by settlers known as pastoral squatters, in a similar fashion to Australia,.

The principle of adverse possession does exist in New Zealand, although it is rarely exercised.
 * https://www.convexlegal.co.nz/knowledge-library/squatters-rights
 * https://www.9news.com.au/national/new-zealand-property-squatter-claims-ownership-of-1-million-homestead/d71dcf65-9b40-4d66-a155-f5cc5d31981c
 * https://www.aspiringlaw.co.nz/articles/squatters-rights

Polynesia
On Rarotonga, the largest island in Cook Islands, three informal settlements are inhabited by people from Manihiki, Penrhyn and Pukapuka. The 3,000 dwellers are known as squatters although they have permission to live on the customary land.

In Tuvalu, the population was 11,126 in 2007. Families living in squatter areas do not have sanitation or drinking water.


 * REDIRECT: Squatting in Samoa