Residents of Warrnambool campaigned from 1877 to 1890 to close the reserve and turn it into an experimental agricultural farm, and in 1894 the reserve was reduced to and the majority of the land given to the Council of Agricultural Education. However, the agricultural farm plans never eventuated, with this land becoming the Framlingham Forest. In 1889 the Board attempted to close the reserve again, but it finally agreed to reserve } for Aboriginal use. In 1916 the Government of Victoria decided to concentrate Aboriginal Victorians at Lake Tyers Mission in Gippsland. The reserve was eventually closed but some residents were allowed to remain, with the community being granted ownership in 1971 of the they held at that time. In the 1930s, public concern over the conditions led the government to build extra housing and a school, and to provide rations. When the reserve was established, it was declared to be in area, although its actual size may have been closer to . As parts of the reserve were sold to private landowners, its size diminished, until only the remained when it was closed in 1971. Some of this land was also set aside as a State Forest. In 1957 the Board for the Protection of Aborigines was abolished, and in 1970 the "Aboriginal Lands Act 1970" was passed by the Parliament of Victoria. Under the provisions of that Act, ownership of Framlingham was handed over to a trust held by Aboriginal residents of the site, Framlingham Aboriginal Trust, on 1 July 1971. Along with Lake Tyers, in the eastern Gippsland region of the state, Framlingham was the last reserve to close in Victoria. In 1976 the Framlingham community began a campaign to regain rights to the Framlingham Forest, that had been excised from the original 1861 reserve in 1894. In April 1979 the community blockaded the road to the forest picnic ground. The Victorian Government proposed allowing Aboriginal management of the forest in 1980 but maintained that it would continue as crown land. The proposal was rejected by the community, who resumed the blockade. In 1987, the Victorian Labor government under John Cain attempted to grant some of the Framlingham State Forest to the trust as inalienable title, but the legislation was blocked by the Liberal Party opposition in the Legislative Council. However, the federal Labor government under Bob Hawke intervened, passing the "Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act 1987", which gave of the Framlingham forest to the Framlingham trust. Although the title is essentially inalienable, in that it can only be transferred to another Indigenous land trust, the Framlingham trust has no rights to prevent mining on the land, unlike trusts or communities holding native title.