ONE of South Australia's oldest farming families faces being kicked off its land by the Federal Government.

Not content with losing an eight-year battle to boot the French family off Corunna Station in March, the Government is now appealing against that decision.

The Government wants to take the 576sq km family farm near Iron Knob on the Eyre Peninsula away from the sheep and cattle graziers who have been there for 36 years, and give it to the Bungala Aboriginal group as compensation for land it took from them for use as part of the Cultana defence training area.

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Family patriarch Graham French, who wants to hand the farm down to son Brenton, his wife Jo-Anne and grandchildren Jessica, 18, Chloe, 17, and Bailey, 15, is disgusted.

"My family's been in this business 100 years, so it's 100 years of heritage gone,'' Mr French said.

"My son and my grandson were ready to take over, and I'm getting towards retirement age but I'm not ready to sit on my bum.''

To add insult to injury, the family has spent more than $100,000 fighting the Government "to keep what we already own'' and will only get 80 per cent of its costs back if it wins.

And despite winning the Federal Court case in March, it will not get that money back while the appeal continues.

Mr French estimates he might have to spend another $100,000 to fight the appeal, which he expects to drag out until the middle of next year.

"And if we win the next one they could go to the High Court,'' he said.

The family accepted that part of the farm, to the east of the Eyre Highway, would be acquired for Defence Department use, but Mr French said it was unfair to take the rest of his land away to give to someone else.

Mr French said the family had been in limbo during the entire process, not able to invest in the farm while its future was uncertain.

"It's fairly shonky all the way through,'' he said.

"My son's had to buy an earthmoving business, he's got a family to put through schooling and now he doesn't know whether to get out of that and stay in the land because he doesn't know whether he will end up with the land or not.

"He's in a worse situation than me. I probably don't have a lot of years of full-time work left but I'm still working, mustering and everything else.''

Federal member for Grey Rowan Ramsey said the Federal Government should be ashamed. "The court ruled that the Commonwealth was not entitled take land from the common law owners to give to the Bungala people as a bribe to sign away their native title rights to the land Defence wants for the Cultana expansion.

"It was only in March we celebrated the success of the little man against Goliath when Justice Besanko from the Federal Court upheld the French family's appeal against the Department of Defence's bid to compulsorily acquire their Corunna leases near Iron Knob only to turn around and give 80 per cent of it to a third party"," he said.

"The Frenchs were told after eight years of uncertainty and stress, they would be left in peace to work their property as they had done for generations".

"(Now we've) learnt the Commonwealth is to take the family back to court and appeal the decision. I am disgusted at the action.

"This is an act of bastardry by the Commonwealth and is more about department officials covering their backsides than anything else.

"It is an appalling precedent for our legal system, that the Commonwealth can confiscate your land, not to use for the national purpose, but to give to a third party as a bribe.''

Mr Ramsey has written to his constituents asking them to write or email Special Minister of State Mark Dreyfus to make their complaints heard.

A spokesperson for the minister said the Government had decided to lodge an appeal "because the decision by the single judge raises a number of important issues and the Government believes that there are legal principles that require further clarification in this case''.

"The Government remains open at all times to resolving the matter through negotiation. However, the Government maintains that the land is required for Commonwealth purposes.''