The High Court's Mabo decision overturns terra nullius and recognises native title, 1992
A decade-long case brought by a Torres Strait Islander man who died before the ruling
Quick facts
- Judgment date
- 3 June 1992
- Lead plaintiff
- Eddie Koiki Mabo (Meriam, Murray Island, Torres Strait)
- Legal doctrine overturned
- terra nullius
- Resulting legislation
- Native Title Act 1993
What happened
On 3 June 1992, the High Court of Australia ruled in Mabo v Queensland (No 2), a case brought by Eddie Koiki Mabo, a Torres Strait Islander man from Murray Island, along with four other Meriam plaintiffs, against the State of Queensland. Six of the seven justices rejected the legal doctrine of terra nullius, the notion that Australia had belonged to no one at the time of British settlement, ruling instead that the Meriam people held rights to their land under their own traditional laws and customs that had survived colonisation, entitling them 'as against the whole world' to possession and use of most of the Murray Islands. Mabo died five months before the judgment was handed down, after pursuing the case for roughly a decade.
Why it matters
The decision overturned 204 years of legal foundation for how Australian courts had treated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land rights and led directly to the Native Title Act 1993, which established the framework Indigenous communities have used since to claim native title; by 2022, more than 500 native title claims had succeeded, covering around 40 percent of the Australian landmass.
How we know
The High Court's judgment is a matter of public legal record; its text and reasoning are analysed in detail by legal scholars including at the Australian National University and the University of Sydney.
Sources
- The University of Sydney. Five things you should know about the Mabo decision · Reputable sourcesydney.edu.au · The domain "sydney.edu.au" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences. 1992 - Mabo v. Queensland · Reputable sourcecass.anu.edu.au · The domain "cass.anu.edu.au" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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