ining project there. The only rights indigenous peoples, therefore, had to land was to those former Aboriginal reserves which Selway said were conveyed to specific peoples by state statutes, such as the 70,000 square kilometre Central Australian Reserve, which was created in 1934 and which was essentially used as a missionary-run reservation for Aborigines.
Landmark High Court Mabo, Wik and Other Cases
In the early 1980s the Meriam Peoples of the Murray Islands, off the coast of Queensland, sought a declaration that they were entitled to the Islands as owners, possessors, and occupiers or as persons entitled to use and enjoy them. The High Court in Mabo No. 2, Mabo v. Queensland (1992) 175 CLR 1, ruled that native land title holders were protected by the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (RDA)(which provided that all Australian citizens are entitled to equality before the law) and "acknowledged for the first time in Australia, that the laws and customs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which it described as 'native title' were recognised as part of the
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