The High Court Decides!

On the 3rd of June 1992, the High Court judges handed down their decisions.

These proved to be among the most important - and lengthy - judgments in Australian legal history.

For the first time, by a majority of six to one, the Court recognised that Australia's indigenous peoples owned traditional land under native title and, unless extinguished by the Crown, their native title continued to the present day.

The doctrine of terra nullius was decisively rejected.

However Eddie Mabo was not there to celebrate the victory. Sadly, he had died, just five months before the High Court's decision.