First Australian Aboriginal land rights case, heard in the NT Supreme Court in 1971
Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd.
Court
Supreme Court (NT)
Decided
27 April 1971
Citation
(1971) 17 FLR 141
Court membership
Judge sitting
Blackburn J
Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd, also known as the Gove land rights case because its subject was land known as the Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory, was the first litigation on native title in Australia, and the first significant legal case for Aboriginal land rights in Australia, decided on 27 April 1971.
The decision of Justice Richard Blackburn ruled against the Yolngu claimants on a number of issues of law and fact, rejecting the doctrine of Aboriginal title. Instead his ruling recognised that in the law of the time of British colonisation of Australia there was a distinction between settled colonies, where the land, being "desert and uncultivated", was claimed by right of occupancy, and conquered or ceded colonies. The decision also noted that the Crown had the power to extinguish native title, if it existed.
The issue of terra nullius was not contemplated in the case. Although Milirrpum was not appealed beyond the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, it was overruled by the High Court of Australia two decades later in Mabo v Queensland (No 2), when native title was recognised under Australian Law.
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