The council's non-claimant application for the sportsground was refused with Justice Stephen Burley ruling "it has not been established on the balance of probabilities that all native title rights and interests that might exist in respect of the land have been extinguished by either the 1823 Deed or the 1880 Deed."

If successful, the bid would have protected the land from future native title claims and effectively extinguish native title rights over the land.

The non-claimant application has been ongoing since 2021. Council's general manager Gareth Curtis said there was no current native title claim on the land and this process was to ensure future control over the land.

"If you go through a process under native title to declare that there is no native title claim it provides more certainty over how we can manage the land," he said.

"[If a native title claim is made] it can cause delays in the implementation of what people want to do on the land."

Because council's claim was unsuccessful, Mr Curtis said there was the potential for future native title claims to be made.

"It could happen and we would have to deal with that if and when it arises," he said.

Justice Burley ordered Dungog council to pay costs to the relevant parties associated with the case. Mr Curtis said that council is currently negotiating with these parties in an attempt to get each party to pay their own court costs.

If an agreement cannot be reached then Mr Curtis said that Dungog council would have to go into their annual legal budget which he described as a 'contingency' for situations like this one.

Justice Burley is yet to announce how much Dungog council will have to pay. Dungog council was unable to release information surrounding the overall cost of the court case.

Mr Curtis said he was disappointed in the outcome of the application.

He said council had to accept the court's decision and "I guess you don't always get success in court".