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Native Title Timeline

The relationship between Indigenous Australian peoples and their lands is the most essential aspect of religion, law culture, forming the basis of individual and communal identity. Despite this unique relationship with the land, Indigenous Australians are the most dispossessed of all people colonised by Britain. It took 204 years for the Anglo- Australian legal system to recognise that Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders have cohesive systems of land law which existed prior to colonisation. During this time, land which Indigenous peoples had owned for over 40,000 years was taken, the people forcibly removed and the British legal system of land ownership imposed.

This timeline is not a complete record. Some information is taken from Al Grassby and Marji Hill Six Australian Battlefields (Angus & Robertson,

1788 Commencement of British colonisation of Australia.
1795 Dharuk people defeated by Imperial forces at Richmond Hill.
1797 Eora people defeated at Parramatta.
1824 Martial law revoked in Bathurst area, signalling end of armed resistance of Imperial forces by Wiradjuri people.
1834 End of the ‘Black Wars’ in Tasmania. Aboriginal people who surrendered taken to Flinders Island in Bass Strait. Nyungar armed resistance of colonisation in north of Western Australia ended with battle of Pinjara.
1836 Exploration party led by Thomas Mitchell kills unknown number of Aboriginal people at Mt Dispersion.
1838 28 Wirraayaraay people massacred by 12 stockmen in NSW. For the first time in the colony’s history, the stockmen were charged, tried and seven were eventually hanged for their crimes.
1842 28 Wirraayaraay people massacred by 12 stockmen in NSW. For the first time in the colony’s history, the stockmen were charged, tried and seven were eventually hanged for their crimes.
1843 John Batman signs a treaty with Woiworung elders near Melbourne.
1855 New South Wales Constitution Act 1855 (Imp) grants self government to the colony of New South Wales.
1863 Woiworung granted reserve land near Healesville, Vic, which they name Coranderrk.
1865 Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 (Imp) allows the NSW Parliament to amend the common law and to amend or repeal received British statutes, unless this conflicted with British legislation which specifically applied in the colony.
1884 End of Kalkadoon resistance to colonisation at Battle Mountain near Mt Isa, Qld.
1889 Cooper v Stuart (1889) 14 App. Cas. 286. The Privy Council confirms that Australia is a settled colony for the purpose of reception of British law.
1901 Federation of Australia and the passing of the Australian Constitution.
1923 Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association established in NSW. Claims citizenship and Indigenous rights and lobbies to resist the removal of children from their parents and loss of reserve lands.
1930 Australian Aborigines Advancement League established in Vic to promote Aboriginal rights and protest against assimilation policy.
1931 Statute of Westminster 1931 (UK) repealed the Colonial Laws Validity Act and removed the power of the British Parliament to pass legislation to be applied in Australia without consent of Australian Parliament.
1933 Burraga, Thirroul chief, petitions King George to guarantee Aboriginal representation in Federal
1938 Aborigines Progressive Association (NSW) presents tenpoint plan outlining a ‘long-range policy for Aborigines’ to Prime Minister Lyons, calling for equality and citizenship rights for Aborigines. The plan was the proceedings of the First National Day of Mourning and Protest held on 26 January, the sesquicentenary of ‘whiteman’s seizure of this country’.
1958 Aboriginal organisations begin campaigning for constitutional change. Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders established.
1963 Yirrkala (Arnhem Land) send bark petition to Federal Parliament to prevent excision of mining lease from land reserved for them.
1965 ‘Freedom rides’ through NSW country towns, expose the conditions of apartheid prevailing in Australia.
1966 Gurindji stockworkers walk off Lord Vestey’s Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory, first to protest against being paid lower wages than white workers and then to claim the station as theirs. Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966 (SA) is the first legislation to recognise the rights of Aboriginal people to their traditional lands. Australia becomes a party to the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
1967 Constitutional Referendum which gave the Federal Government exclusive power to pass laws in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
1971 Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd and the Commonwealth (1971) FLR 141 (the Gove land rights case) confirms that Australia was terra nullius and refuses to recognise native title.
1972 Tent Embassy established in grounds of Parliament House in Canberra.
1973 Aboriginal Land Rights Commission established, headed by Justice A E Woodward. Commission’s 1974 recommendations used as the basis for land rights legislation in some states.
1975 Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) passed, giving effect to the terms of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in Australian law.
1976 Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth) passed.
1978 Coe v Commonwealth (1979) 24 ALR 118, Wiradjuri man Paul Coe’s claims that Aboriginal people have sovereignty over Australia struck down by the High Court.
1982 Merriam from the Murray Islands in the Torres Strait, Mabo, Passi and Rice, initiate transferring freehold title over existing reserves to Aboriginal Land Councils and establishing a claims procedure for areas of Crown land.
1984 Committee to Defend Black Rights established. Calls for Royal Commission into Black deaths in custody.
1985 Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985 (Qld) passed in an attempt to extinguish any existing native title.
1986 Australia Act 1986 (Cth) and (UK) passed, removing all British power to pass legislation to apply in Australia. Privy Council removed as final court of appeal. High Court becomes the highest court in Australia.
1988 Mabo v Queensland (No. 1) (1988) 166 CLR 186. The High Court finds that the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985 is invalid because it contravenes the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.
1989 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 (Cth) passed, establishing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) as the main policy-making body for Indigenous affairs, operated through regional councillors elected by Indigenous constituents.
1990 Aboriginal Provisional Government established.
1991 Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act 1991 (Cth) established under Federal Government policy for some form of reconciliation by the year 2001.
1992 Mabo v Queensland (No. 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1. The High Court recognises the Meriam peoples’ native title to the Murray Islands in the Torres Strait.
1993 Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) passed, the National Native Title Tribunal established and the Social Justice Package announced.
1995 Land Fund and Indigenous Land Corporation (ATSIC Amendment) Act 1995 (Cth) establishes a source of funds for Indigenous people who cannot claim native title over their traditional lands, to purchase land under freehold title. Western Australia v Commonwealth (1995) 183 CLR 373. The High Court says that the States cannot extinguish native title inconsistently with the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth).
1996 Wik Peoples v Queensland (1996) 187 CLR 1. The High Court says that Queensland pastoral leases do not necessarily extinguish native title. Dunghulti agreement - First determination of native title under Native Title Act. National Indigenous Working Group on Native Title (NIWG) formed.
1997 John Howard’s Coalition government announces its ten-point plan, a summary of its proposed amendments to the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) in response to the Wik decision.
1998 Native Title Amendment Act 1998 (Cth) passed. Reduces the circumstances in which Indigenous people can secure their native title rights. unreported, see page 24 for how to find a copy on AustLII.) An unsuccessful native title claim to areas of Crown land in southern NSW and northern Victoria. Appeal to full Federal Court heard in 1999, judgement reserved. Yarmirr v Northern Territory [No. 2] (1998) 156 ALR 370. Justice Olney of the Federal Court says that nonexclusive communal native title could exist over the sea and sea-beds. Ward v Western Australia (1998) 159 ALR 483. Federal Court recognises the native title rights of the Miriuwung and Gajerrong peoples over an area of approximately 7,900 km2 of land in the Eastern Kimberley of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The first successful contested determination of native title over the Australian mainland. Fejo v Northern Territory (1998) 195 CLR 96. High Court confirms that a grant of freehold title extinguishes native title. Western Yalanji (28 September 1998) consent determination between native title holders, pastoralists and miners.
1999 Commonwealth v Yarmirr (1999) 168 ALR 426. Full Federal Court confirms that native title can exist in relation to the seas. First appeal determined by the full Federal Court in respect of a claim heard and determined on its merits. Yanner v Eaton (1999) 166 ALR 258. The High Court determines that conservation legislation does not extinguish native title but may regulate the exercise of native title rights. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), in its March Decision 2 (54), that the Federal Government’s amendments to the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) breach Australia’s human rights obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The CERD Committee, in its August Decision 2 (55), requests information from the Australian government under its early warning and urgent action procedure. Adelong Agreement (Tumut/Brungle, NSW). Australia’s first registered Indigenous Land Use Agreement.
2000 Western Australia v Ward (2000) 170 ALR 159. The full Federal Court says that native title is extinguished by many interests in land that are less than freehold. Anderson v Wilson (2000) FCA 394. The full Federal Court confirms that pastoral leases do not necessarily extinguish native title in the Western Division of NSW. Concluding Observations by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Australia’s periodic reports reaffirm that the Native Title Amendment Act 1998 (Cth) breaches Australia’s human rights obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

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