Terra Nullius & Australia

The British failed to acknowledge the prior rights of Aboriginal Australians possibly because they were seen as mere hunter-gatherers, who didn't cultivate the soil.

However factual errors also had a significant impact. Sir Joseph Banks, who sailed with Captain Cook, observed in his journal that eastern Australia was, "thinly inhabited, even to admiration".

Thus, the decision to establish the colony of New South Wales was taken on the entirely erroneous, but highly convenient, assumption, that the territory was virtually uninhabited.

• Terra Nullius Defined
• International Law
• Colonisation
• Human Rights
• Takeovers
• Bases For Takeovers
• Justifications
• Barbarism
• Hierarchies Of Land Use
• Recent Changes To International Law
• Territorial Integrity
• The Common Law Of England
• Common Law Rules For New English Territories
• Settled & Conquered Colonies
• The Status Of The Australian Colonies
• Reception Of English Law
• Sovereignty & Ownership Distinguished
• Other Lands Settled By The British
• Terra Nullius & Australia
• Crown Land
• Gove Case
• The Gove Decision Questioned
• The Mabo Case
• The Mabo Decision
• Britain's Acquisition Of Sovereignty
• Pre-Existing Land Rights
• The Doctrine Of Tenures Reconsidered
• Extinguishment Of Native Title
• Sovereignty & Indigenous Self-Government