Mabo v State of Queensland (No 2)

Join us in September as the Hon Margaret White AO presents an in-depth look at one of the most important judgments ever delivered by the High Court, Mabo v State of Queensland (No 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1. 

The Hon Margaret White AO acted as junior counsel for the Queensland Government for the ten years of litigation. She brings a unique and valuable perspective to this landmark constitutional case.

Mabo v Queensland (No. 2) is one of the most important judgments ever delivered by the High Court. It concerned an issue arising from events some 200 years earlier, when the Australian continent was first colonised. The issue was whether the effect of colonisation, under the common law, was to vest full ownership of all Australian land in the Crown—or whether the common law recognised land titles rising under pre-existing Indigenous laws and customs.

For two centuries, Australian society had proceeded upon the assumption that no native title rights had survived colonisation. With each passing decade, as modern development expanded and religious societies fragmented, the practical difficulties of challenging this view seemed insuperable. In Mabo, however, a viable test case emerged. It concerned the Meriam people of the Murray Islands in the Torres Strait. These remote islands had been continuously occupied, since well before European settlement, by descendants of the same Indigenous peoples. As these islands had been spared the worst of colonisation, it seemed possible for the claimants to prove the existence of precolonial land rights—and their continuing operation on the island—so providing a factual basis upon which to challenge the conventional view that these rights had been extinguished.

This challenge was commenced by proceedings instituted in the High Court by Meriam people Eddie Koiki Mabo, Celuia Mapo Salee, Sam Passi, David Passi and James Rice. It took ten years to resolve—including a full trial of the factual issues heard by Moynihan J of the Supreme Court of Queensland. The claimant’s success in this case marked a major turning point in both the law and Indigenous relations in Australia.

More Information: Mabo v Queensland (No. 2) is one of the most important judgments ever delivered by the High Court. It concerned an issue arising from events some 200 years earlier, when the Australian continent was first colonised. The issue was whether the effect of colonisation, under the common law, was to vest full ownership of all Australian land in the Crown or whether the common law recognised land titles rising under pre-existing Indigenous laws and customs.

The Hon Margaret White AO acted as junior counsel for the Queensland Government for the ten years of litigation. She brings a unique and valuable perspective to this landmark constitutional case.

For More Information

RSVP by 15th September 2016 to events@sclqld.org.au

Further Details: CPD points - Bar Association of Queensland = 1 point per hour, self-assessed; Queensland Law Society = 1 point per hour, self-assessed.