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Terra Nullius & Australia
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The British failed to acknowledge the prior rights of Aboriginal Australians possibly because they were seen as mere hunter-gatherers, who didn't cultivate the soil.

However factual errors also had a significant impact. Sir Joseph Banks, who sailed with Captain Cook, observed in his journal that eastern Australia was, "thinly inhabited, even to admiration".

Thus, the decision to establish the colony of New South Wales was taken on the entirely erroneous, but highly convenient, assumption, that the territory was virtually uninhabited.
Captain Cook's Instructions
Text
1768-1788
Cook, Captain James, Pacific Islands
Open Slather
Video
1982-1992
terra nullius
...original owners of the soil...
Text
 
Africa, Canada, New Zealand (Aotearoa), property law, settlements, terra nullius, United States of America
Reynolds On Banks
Text
 
Banks, Sir Joseph, barbarism, gardening, land use, Reynolds, Henry (Prof.), terra nullius
London's Attempts To Rectify Matters
Text
1788-
Britain, colonialism, colonisation, conquest, convicts, Cook, Captain James, First Fleet, humanitarians, invasion, property, property law, settlements, Tasmania, terra nullius, United States of America
Property & Inheritance
Topic
 
Cambridge Anthropological Expedition, inheritance, land ownership, Meriam culture, property
A Humanitarian Tradition
Topic
 
Australia, colonialism, Cook, Captain James, First Fleet, humanitarians, land rights, terra nullius
A Challenge To The Established Law
Topic
Apr, 3, 1987
Canberra, High Court of Australia, native title, Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act , 1985 , sovereignty, terra nullius
A Meriam Calendar, Ancient & Modern
Topic
 
fishing, food gathering, gardening, Mer, Meriam culture, Murray Island
Barbarism
Topic
 
barbarism, conquest, International law
Terra Nullius
Topic
 
colonisation, crown land, doctrine of tenure, First Fleet, New South Wales, sovereignty, terra nullius
Dispossession
Topic
 
colonisation, dispossession
GovernmentAuthority
Topic
1879
assimilation, Mer, Murray Island, Murray Island Council, Murray Island Native Court, Queensland, school
Hierarchies Of Land Use
Topic
 
barbarism, colonisation, terra nullius
Justifications
Topic
 
barbarism, colonisation, terra nullius
Land Bilong Islanders - Mabo
Topic
 
Great Northern expedition, land ownership, Mabo Case, Mabo, Edward Koiki, Malo's laws, Mer, Meriam culture, Moynihan, Justice Martin, Murray Island, sea rights
Mabo Case Commences
Topic
1982
claim, High Court of Australia, Mabo Case, Mabo, Edward Koiki, plaintiffs
Seafarers & Food Growers
Topic
 
fishing, gardening, sea rights, seafarers
Terra Nullius Defined
Topic
 
terra nullius
Wardaman Women
Image and Text
1912
aborigines, anthropology, Baldwin Spencer, Walter, custom, Northern Territory
Property And Inheritance
Text
 
Cambridge Anthropological Expedition, inheritance, land ownership, Meriam culture, property