Who was Eddie Mabo?

Eddie Koiki Mabo (1936 to 1992) was a Meriam man from Mer (Murray Island) in the eastern Torres Strait and the lead plaintiff in the Mabo v Queensland (No 2) case that ended the legal fiction of terra nullius and recognised native title in Australian law in June 1992. He died of cancer on 21 January 1992, five months before the High Court's landmark decision.

Mabo was born on Mer Island in 1936 and worked variously as a deck hand, cane cutter, and railway labourer before settling in Townsville in north Queensland in 1959. He became involved in trade union activism, civil rights campaigning, and the establishment of the Black Community School in Townsville (the country's first Aboriginal community school). He worked at James Cook University as a gardener and groundskeeper for many years.

Mabo's legal case began in 1982 after he discovered during his work at James Cook University that his family land on Mer Island was technically Crown land owned by the Queensland government. Two James Cook academics, Henry Reynolds (historian) and Noel Loos (historian), had been explaining Australian Aboriginal history in their lectures, and Mabo concluded that the legal treatment of his land was wrong. He approached Melbourne barrister Ron Castan and solicitor Greg McIntyre, who agreed to take the case to the High Court. Mabo was joined as plaintiffs by fellow Meriam men David Passi and James Rice.

The case took ten years to decide. The Queensland government attempted to defeat the case by passing the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985, which purported to extinguish any pre-existing Indigenous interests in the Torres Strait Islands. The High Court ruled in Mabo v Queensland (No 1) in 1988 that the Queensland Act was invalid because it violated the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. The main case, Mabo v Queensland (No 2), was decided 3 June 1992. Mabo died of cancer in Brisbane on 21 January 1992 at age 55, missing the final judgment by five months. He received the Australian Human Rights Medal in 1992, was named Australian of the Year in 1992 (posthumously, the first such award), and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1992. The Mabo Day commemoration on 3 June each year, celebrations at Mer Island, the Mabo and Others v Queensland film of 2012 directed by Rachel Perkins, and the wider recognition of native title under the Native Title Act 1993 all continue his legacy. About 50 per cent of Australia is now subject to determined or claimed native title interests as a direct result of his case.