Native Title is recognised

On 3 June 1992, six of the seven High Court judges ruled that the lands of this continent were not terra nullius or ‘land belonging to no-one’ when European settlement occurred and that Eddie Koiki Mabo on behalf of the traditional owners of the Murray Islands, the Meriam people, had Native Title. This historic case known as the Mabo decision recognised the fact that Indigenous peoples had lived in Australia for thousands of years and ultimately had wide implications for the recognition of rights of Aboriginal people to enjoy the land according to their own laws and custom.

Years later, on 23 December 1996, the power of Native title extended to the mainland with the High Court ruling in favour of the Wik people, asserting that the claim of traditional owners could not be extinguished by mining or pastoral leaseholders.