Native Title in the Shadows: The Origins of the Myth of Terra Nullius in Early New South Wales Courts

Australian law is notorious for its refusal to recognize its indigenous peoples’ land titles and sovereignty. As Henry Reynolds put it, the “truly amazing achievement of Australian jurisprudence was to deny that the Aborigines were ever in possession of their own land.” ¹ Europeans first occupied part of the continent in 1788, when they began progressively displacing Aboriginal peoples who had lived there for tens of thousands of years. There has never been a treaty between the invading Europeans and native peoples, nor have British or Australian officials purchased any of their lands.