Relations between the Aboriginal people and cattlemen appear to have been problematic north of Utopia in Alyawarra/Anmatjirra/Kaititja country, but more cooperative in the south: Utopia, MacDonald Downs, Mt Swan, and Bundey River. The Chalmers family, who had owned the adjacent MacDonald Downs station since 1923, acquired the lease in 1965. They sold the lease of Utopia as a going concern to the Aboriginal Land Fund, before it was handed back to the Anmatyerr and Alyawarr people as Aboriginal freehold land in 1979–1980 under the "Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976". The Central Land Council had lodged the claim on 20 November 1978. Five clans (one Anmatyerre and four Alyawarre) became legal owners of the station.