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322497 120602 twam eddie mabo

Mabo Case (No. 2)

By ashwallace.

  • Australia first colonised by British settlers

  • Australia labelled as 'Nobody's Land'

  • Mabo discovers he does not own Murray Island land

  • A land rights conference is held at James Cook University

  • Mabo and others make legal claim for ownership of their lands

  • Queensland Parliament passes the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act

  • The High Court finds the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act contravenes section 10 of the Federal Racial Discrimination Act 1975, and is therefore invalid

  • Mabo's family denied into Thursday Island

    Although Mabo's family had the intention to visit Mabo's dying father they were denied entry into Murray Island

  • Mabo dies of cancer

  • The High Court rejects the notion of terra nullius and recognises the Meriam people as the native title holders of traditional lands on Murray Island

  • Native Title Act is tabled in Federal Parliament

  • Parliament enacts the Native Title Act 1993.

  • Native Title Act (NTA) commences operation, National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) established and Native Title Representative Bodies (NTRBs) recognised in law.

  • Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Fund established.

  • High Court in Western Australia v. Commonwealth rejects Western Australia's constitutional challenge to the Native Title Act

  • The first resolution of a native title claim for mainland Australia involving the Dunghutti people of Crescent Head and the New South Wales government

  • Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation formed

  • Howard Government releases Amended Wik ten point plan foreshadowing major amendments to the NTA

  • amendments and a compromise agreement between the government and Senator Brian Harradine, the Native Title Amendment Act 1998 is passed

  • High Court confirms that the grant of freehold extinguishes native title in Fejo v Northern Territory

  • Bonita Mabo, calls for a national public holiday on the anniversary of the High Court's decision