The Mabo decision

Ten years later, the Murray Islanders were successful. They had been able to demonstrate an unbroken line of title to their land and the High Court of Australia accepted that the land belonged to them. This decision, made on 3 June 1992, overturned the concept of Terra Nullius.

For Aboriginal people, the High Court decision recognised native title on vacant Crown land. Crown land is land owned by the government on behalf of all Australians. At the time, Crown land was approximately 12 per cent of the Australian continent. However, the High Court decision also stated that Native Title had been extinguished (put out, lost) by the granting of freehold land. This was land owned by individuals or corporations. These findings were incorporated in the Native Title Act (NTA) of 1993. See this diagram (.pdf 165kB).

The Mabo decision left the question, ‘Could Native title exist on other land, particularly pastoral leases which accounted for approximately 42 per cent of Australia?’ These were lands that were leased to farmers so they could graze their livestock, usually cattle. The farmers did not own the land but they could make improvements such as build fences to keep stock contained and dams to provide water for them. Landholders, farmers, developers and the government wanted to know if the right to use the land exclusively was under threat. They sought clarification of land ownership and it came with the Wik decision.