After Tuesday's historic Federal Court granting of native title over Perth to the Noongar people of southwest Western Australia, Mr Ruddock said the ruling could have significant implications akthough the case was in its early stages.

"In a major capital city, where you do have very extensive areas of parklands, water foreshores, beaches, matters of that sort, you could well find that if a native title were found to be a bona fide claim and lawful that means that native title owners would be able to exclude other people from access to those areas," he said.

The shock Federal Court ruling giving Aborigines native title over Perth has split the Labor Party, appearing to put national president Warren Mundine at odds with leader Kim Beazley.

As legal experts warned that Brisbane and Melbourne could be next on the native title hit list, Mr Beazley's swift support for a state appeal against the court decision outraged indigenous Labor members.

NSW Native Title Council member and prominent Aboriginal leader Mr Mundine said he was not surprised by the West Australian Labor Government's move to signal an appeal - likely to be joined by the federal Government - but he was disappointed.

"This is what governments do, and people need to focus on the real issues," he said.

"People should calm down and start looking at the benefits that could come out of this. I have not seen anyone outside of this Aboriginal community who have lost.

"This is a fantastic decision - it opens up a lot of help for a lot of indigenous people."

Indigenous leader and NSW Labor parliamentarian Linda Burney, who is running for the ALP presidency, said she was surprised the party had taken a position against the ruling.

"The thing people need to understand is that native title is a property right, like any other property right in Australia," Ms Burney said.

"What this determination could mean is very positive outcomes for not only the indigenous community but the Australian economy."

The decision has stunned all levels of government and caused confusion and uncertainty across the country.

John Howard said yesterday he was concerned about the implications of the decision, while Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the commonwealth would back any appeal by the Carpenter state Government, presumably to the full bench of the Federal Court.

Mr Beazley said he "obviously" supported the state Government's plan to appeal against the ruling "because on the face of it, it does seem a different decision from decisions previously taken by the High Court".

Justice Wilcox's decision is part of a wider Noongar claim over almost 200,000sqkm of the state's southwest, which is still before the court.

Tuesday's ruling, which does not affect freehold land or most leasehold land, backs Noongar claims that it has maintained a traditional and cultural link with the land despite white settlement in 1829 and subsequent dispossession.

Western Australia has 30,000 Noongar people, half the state's Aboriginal population. They claim to be the country's biggest indigenous group. Footballers Jeff and Polly Farmer and Nicky Winmar, actor and director Richard Walley and Miles Franklin Award-winning author Kim Scott are Noongars.

In Perth, deputy Premier Eric Ripper accused the Federal Court of handing down two distinctly different streams of findings, making the state's approach to native title negotiations with Aboriginal communities difficult. He said recent decisions contradicted the principles of the High Court's 2002 Yorta Yorta ruling, which rejected claims over settled areas of northern Victoria and southern NSW.

Native title lawyer Christine Lovitt, of Perth firm Blakiston & Crabb, said Justice Wilcox's approach was so accommodating to changing cultural practices it amounted to a new approach.

It meant that claims over other cities would be likely to succeed if a similar approach was followed. The cities most at risk were Brisbane and Melbourne, where native title claims had already been lodged over outlying parts of the metropolitan area.

Ms Lovitt warned that if other judges adopted Justice Wilcox's approach, every native title claim in Western Australia was likely to succeed. She said it was important that the case be appealed because it could have a major impact on the mining industry.

While this claim was backed by WA Liberal senator Alan Eggleston, who predicted major delays to projects in the state, the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy said it was not alarmed.

"From the mining sector's point of view, we're very familiar with the native title process ... It's part of normal business practice," said chamber chief executive Tim Shanahan.

Jon Altman, director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at Australian National University, said the decision was largely symbolic but could lead to developers making partial payments to traditional owners as well as the state.

West Australian Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan said native title agreements had already been reached over two booming Pilbara mining towns. "We have achieved native title settlement in Port Hedland and Karratha. There is some uncertainty about native title rights on land in Newman but we are confident these matters can be resolved," she said.

Additional reporting: Paige Taylor, Amanda O'Brien, Tony Barrass