Australian Legal Case: The Mabo Case :: Papers

Australian Legal Case: The Mabo Case The Mabo case commenced in the late 70's about an Aborigine Eddie Mabo who fought for his land on Murray Island, part of the Torres Strait. The issue that started the court case was when Mr Mabo appealed for a permit from the Queensland Government to visit the island. His proposal was declineed so he was unable to return home to visit his homeland. In 1981, in James Cook University where Eddie Mabo was working at the time, the students called a discussion on land rights in Australia. It was decided at the conference that the issue of a land claim by the Murray Islanders to traditional title would be taken to the High Court. With major local party support, including legal experts with significant experience in land rights legislation they set off to claim that Mabo had the right to visit his homeland.. The aim of the case was to make the law decide that the Islanders owned the land not the Euopeans [IMAGE] The case was motioned to the High Court at first, however they had to take it to their State Court the Supreme Court of Queensland first. The Queensland Government acted in response and they passed an unexpected piece of legislation through the House without any debate - the Torres Strait Islands Coastal Islands Bill. The Act quoted: 'Any rights that Torres Strait Islanders had to land after the claim of sovereignty in 1879 is hereby extinguished without compensation'. This was how the Mabo case started with an honourable aim. The main aim of the case was to prove that the Queensland Government breached the Bill breached the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975. It was also a case to make the Commonwealth government aware that Native Australians had the right to the so called "terra nullius", the name given to Australia when the Europeans first arrived meaning empty land. The case went back to the Supreme Court of Queensland where Justice Moynihan gave a presentation of the facts of the case.