South Australia was the first state in Australia to enact Aboriginal land rights legislation, with the PitjantjatjaraLand Rights Act of 1981 transferring title to lands in north-west South Australia to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara.

In January 1985, the Maralinga Tjarutja land was handed back to the Maralinga people following the enactment of the Maralinga Tjarutja Land Rights Act 1984. This Act granted freehold title to an area of about 81,373 square kilometres (or about 7.7 percent of the state of South Australia) to Maralinga Tjarutja, a corporate body established under the Act, of which all traditional owners are members.

From 1956 to 1963 the British conducted nuclear tests at Maralinga, in outback north-west South Australia, on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert and the Nullarbor Plain. To gain control of the selected test site, British and Australian governments confiscated the lands of the Maralinga Tjarutja people, relocating many community members to other areas. Local Maralinga people were not warned effectively of the explosions, and those who remained in the lands suffered terrible after-effects from fallout.

An Australian government Royal Commission was set up in 1984 to inquire into the safety standards observed during the nuclear trials. Various clean-up operations were conducted in years following the tests, with controversy regarding the effectiveness of the process.

The Maralinga people resettled on the land from 1995, naming the new community Oak Valley Community.