This report was prepared for the North Australian Indigenous Land & Sea Management Alliance's (NAILSMA) Indigenous Water Policy Group (IWPG), and is hosted on the NAILASMA website. The NAILSMA IWPG project aims to articulate the least known aspects of water policy particularly relevant to north Australia’s Indigenous population, for example, issues relating to property rights, use and management.

This report presents preliminary research about fresh water governance arrangements in the Maningrida region of some 10,000 square kilometres in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. The report begins with a discussion of methodology before turning to a description of the region’s water resources. The focus is on three linked broad perspectives on water: a historical analysis of the political economy of water; a sectoral analysis of water in the regional 'hybrid' economy; and a spatial analysis of water governance in Maningrida and the hinterland.