The A to Z of Australia by James C. Docherty

Author:James C. Docherty
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2007-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

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MABO JUDGMENT. The Mabo Judgment was a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia concerning native land title. Handed down on 3 June 1992, the Judgment was the conclusion of a case begun in 1982 by Eddie Mabo (pronounced “Marbo”) (1936–1992) and four other indigenous Melanesian residents of Murray Island (or Mer), a tiny island on the eastern approach to Torres Strait, seeking confirmation of their traditional land rights. By a majority of six to one, the Court upheld the Islanders’ claim. It recognized that although the British Crown had gained title to the land of Australia in 1788, this action did not wipe out existing native title. In reaching its decision, the Court followed the general approach of courts in the United States, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand. Although of political and symbolic significance, the practical impact of other land claims by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders following the Mabo Judgment was expected to be limited because of the strict criteria laid down by the Court to establish such claims and because further test cases were needed to clarify the legal boundaries of native title.

In January 1994, the Keating government enacted the Native Title Act that was intended to clarify the legal uncertainties caused by the Mabo Judgment and to create a tribunal to hear land claims.

The limitations of the Mabo Judgment for land rights claims by indigenous Australians were made much less certain by the Wik Decision in December 1996. On 11 December 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada referred to the Mabo Judgment in a decision concerning a land and mineral right claim by indigenous Canadians.

MACKELLAR, ISOBEL MARIAN DOROTHEA (1885–1968). Poetess and novelist, Dorothea MacKellar was born in Sydney and although not formally educated, she sat in on lectures at the University of Sydney. In 1908, she published her poem “Core of My Heart” in the London Spectator, which she revised and published as “My Country” in The Closed Door in 1911. This compelling hymn of praise to the Australian landscape was used widely in Australian secondary schools for decades and is probably the best-known Australian poem. Although she published three novels and four collections of poetry before 1926, they did not have the impact of her earlier work.

MACQUARIE, LACHLAN (1762–1824). Macquarie was colonial governor of New South Wales from 1 January 1810, to 30 November 1821; his tenure in office is generally considered one of the formative periods in Australian history. He was born on an island in the Inner Hebrides off the coast of Scotland, and arrived in New South Wales with his own regiment, the 73rd, after the “Rum Rebellion.” Despite the large influx of convicts during his term in office, Macquarie tried to run New South Wales more as a colony than as simply an outdoor jail. He had virtually complete powers as governor and used them to govern as a benign autocrat. He used the convicts to build roads and public buildings and founded the towns of Liverpool, Bathurst, Penrith, and Cambelltown.

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