What was the Mabo decision in 1992?

The Mabo decision of 1992 was the High Court of Australia's landmark ruling on 3 June 1992 in Mabo v Queensland (No 2), which recognised native title to land in Australian law for the first time and overturned the long-standing legal doctrine of terra nullius (the claim that Australia had been legally unoccupied when the British arrived in 1788). The decision is the most consequential Indigenous legal victory in Australian history.

The case was brought by Eddie Koiki Mabo, a Meriam man from Mer (Murray Island) in the eastern Torres Strait, alongside fellow Meriam plaintiffs David Passi and James Rice. The case began in 1982 after Mabo discovered (during his work at James Cook University) that his family land was claimed by the Queensland government as Crown land. Mabo and his co-plaintiffs argued that the Meriam people had continuously occupied and managed their land for thousands of years, with sophisticated systems of ownership, inheritance, and land use that survived British annexation in 1879.

The High Court decided 6-1 in favour of the plaintiffs. Justices Brennan, Deane, Toohey, Gaudron, Mason, and McHugh ruled (Dawson dissenting) that native title could exist in Australian law where Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples had maintained their connection to country. The doctrine of terra nullius was specifically rejected. The Court held that British annexation had not extinguished pre-existing Indigenous interests in land unless those interests had been specifically extinguished by clear and plain legislative action.

The decision had immediate and long-term consequences. The Keating Labor government's Native Title Act 1993 codified the decision into a statutory framework for recognising and managing native title across the country. The Wik decision of 1996 extended the principles to pastoral leases. The Native Title Amendment Act 1998 (the so-called Ten Point Plan under Howard) adjusted the framework. About 50 per cent of Australia is now subject to determined or claimed native title interests, with the National Native Title Tribunal and the Federal Court overseeing the claims process. Eddie Mabo died on 21 January 1992, five months before the High Court's decision, and never saw the final judgment. He received a posthumous Order of Australia in 1992. The 3 June anniversary is now marked as Mabo Day in Indigenous communities and is the last day of National Reconciliation Week each year.