Series 8:
Land claim, 1981-1992
In 1981, at a conference on indigenous land rights in Townsville, a decision was made to pursue a native land title claim for the people of the Murray Islands in the High Court of Australia. In 1982, Mabo and four other Islander plaintiffs instituted proceedings against the State of Queensland, claiming that their islands had been continuously inhabited and exclusively possessed by their people who lived in permanent settled communities. They acknowledged that the British Crown became sovereign of the islands upon annexation, but claimed continuous enjoyment of their land rights which had not been validly extinguished by the sovereign through the granting of freehold title or land leases to others. The Queensland Government attempted to defeat the claim with the passage of the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985. In 1988, the High Court ruled this Act contrary to the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act 1975. In May 1989, the High Court remitted the land claim to the Queensland Supreme Court for hearing and determination of all issues of fact. In November 1990, Justice Moynihan of the Supreme Court delivered the Court's determination of the issues of fact. The case was argued for four days before the High Court in May 1991. The final decision was handed down in favour of Mabo on 3 June 1992. This decision overturned the 204-year-old legal doctrine of terra nullius, which held that the lands of the Australian continent were 'practically unoccupied' at the time of the proclamation of British sovereignty.
Further reading
The Mabo Decision, and the Full Text of the Decision in Mabo and Others v State of Queensland. Commentary by Richard H. Bartlett. Sydney: Butterworths, 1993.
Mabo, a Judicial Revolution: The Aboriginal Land Rights Decision and Its Impact on Australian Law. Edited by M.A. Stephenson and Suri Ratnapala. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1993.
Mabo Papers. Department of the Parliamentary Library, Parliamentary Research Service. Subject Series no. 1. Canberra: AGPS, 1994.
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| Folder 1
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Manuscript and typescript of speech given by Mabo at the Land Rights and Future of Australian Race Relations Conference, James Cook University, Townsville, August 1981 |
| Folder 2
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Correspondence and 'Plaintiffs' Statement of Facts', 1982-1989 Correspondence with solicitor Greg McIntyre, 1982-1989; and 'Plaintiffs' Statement of Facts Volume 1 with Annexures', 77 pp., spiral bound, 1984.
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| Folder 3
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Miscellaneous papers, 1981-1982 Include printed items, a cutting, and papers by Paul Richards and Barbara Hocking.
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| Folder 4
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Paper by R.E. Johannes and J.W. MacFarlane (CSIRO) on traditional sea rights in the Torres Strait Islands, 1983 |
| Folder 5
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Drafts of letters by Mabo and copy of letter about land rights debate from Tony Nichols, 1984 |
| Folder 6
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Miscellaneous papers, c.1985 Include: newspaper cuttings; receipts for Torres Strait Islander contributions to defray the costs of the court case; handwritten drafts recording Mabo's reactions to his dispute with Areag Dipoma over the ownership of land at Sebeg, which Mabo claimed belonged to his adoptive father, Benny; annotated photocopy from Coe v Commonwealth (1979) 24 ALR 118.
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| Folder 7
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Drafts of letters, sketch plan and notes by Mabo, newspaper article about High Court challenge, 1985 |
| Folder 8
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Brief for Australian Labor Party National Executive on land rights, newsletters, 1985 |
| Folder 9-10
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Miscellaneous papers, 1986 Include: maps of Mer showing traditional land ownership boundaries; annotated photocopies from Canadian Federal Court reports; Mabo family genealogies used in legal debates over Mabo's lineage and inheritance; a photocopy of an article by Anthony Wilkin, 'Land Tenure and Inheritance at Mabuiag'; and document entitled 'Current Report on Mabo and Others vs Queensland and Commonwealth' by Koiki Mabo, March 1986.
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| Folder 11
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Miscellaneous papers, 1987-1988 Include: correspondence with Murray Island Council; transcripts of court proceedings, February 1987; newspaper cuttings; applications for financial assistance with legal costs; copy of Nonie Sharp's 'Faces of Power in the Torres Strait Islands, the 1980s and the 1930s', a 30-page Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) Congress paper; and rough working notes.
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| Folder 12
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Drafts of letters from Mabo to Chairman and Council of Mer Island, 1988 |
| Folder 13
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Miscellaneous papers, 1989 Includ: correspondence with Murray Island Council regarding the Dipoma/Sebeg land dispute; issue of Torres News, 26 May 1989; newspaper cuttings; Mabo's notes of the '50th Day', his summary of hearings before Mr Justice Moynihan on Mer; correspondence with Yarra Bank films regarding the documentary Land Bilong Islanders; genealogical notes; and an application for funding assistance with associated correspondence.
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| Folder 14
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Copies of letters from Mabo to Ron Day and from Caroline Modee to Greg McIntyre, 1989 |
| Folder 15
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Miscellaneous papers, 1990-1992 Include: articles on the proposed Cape York spaceport; newspaper cuttings; a circular letter by Mabo's daughter Maleta West, 1992, which criticises Murray Islanders for not supporting the case sufficiently; and various tributes to Eddie Mabo written at the time of his death.
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| Folder 16
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Miscellaneous papers Include: a map of Mer; a paper by Jeremy Beckett on ownership of land in the Torres Strait Islands; verse and songs about Mer; and notes by Mabo.
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| Folio 1
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Mounted display notices in English and Meriam Mer, 1985, c.1988 The notices (1985), which combine press cuttings and messages written by Mabo, call on Islanders to support the land rights case and oppose the actions of the Queensland Government. Photocopies of newspaper cuttings, 1988.
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