The Mabo decision

In 1982 Eddie Koiki Mabo and fellow Meriam plaintiffs asked the High Court to recognise their ownership of Mer, an island in the eastern Torres Strait. Ten years later, months after Mabo's death, the court ruled six to one that native title had survived British colonisation, rejecting the idea that Australia had been terra nullius, land belonging to no one. Parliament passed the Native Title Act in 1993.