The NSW Aboriginal Land Council has lodged its 60,000th land claim since the legislation was enacted in 1983.
The claim encompasses a number of outstanding claims, including some dating back to 1984.
NSW Aboriginal Land Council deputy chair Ross Hampton said, with more than 40,000 claims outstanding the lodgement was an opportunity to start proper action for communities waiting decades for a resolution.
"There has certainly been a number of significant claims in recent times but the challenge is to address that significant backlog sooner rather than later," he told AAP.
In the last financial year, 672 land claims were lodged, over 13,000 parcels of land.
During the same period 274 hectares of land were returned.
The land council has increased its land claim activities but chairperson Ray Kelly said there's also been a significant decline in land returns.
He said the 60,000th land claim submitted by the council is not merely symbolic, it is corrective.
"We are ensuring that no historic claims are abandoned and that the state is fully aware of the scale of its unresolved obligations," he said.
"Our people have waited decades – and continue to wait – for their land to be returned.
"We can no longer allow prolonged administrative inertia to undermine our land rights."
The average time for a land claim to be resolved is 15 to 20 years.
Mr Hampton said some take even longer to come to a resolution.
"There was a land claim granted in Brewarrina, 40 years after it was lodged," he said.
"It was the very first land claim that was lodged. That is a very sad indictment on where we sit today."
Elders and pioneers of land rights who first lodged many claims have not lived to see them resolved, Mr Hampton said.
"(The government) need to take the bull by the horns and start resourcing the proper agencies, working with NSWALC and the land councils to resolve these in a more timely manner," he said.
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