Why was terra nullius applied to Australia in 1788?

Answer 1

== == It was not until 1889 that the Judiciary of the Privy Council endorsed Terra nullius with the handing down of the decision of Cooper v Stuart. To this day, even since Mabo and Wik, there is some controversy as to the meaning of the term. Some argue that, rather than implying completely uninhabited, "terra nullius" can be interpreted to mean simply an absence of civilized society. The English common law of the time allowed for the legal settlement of any "uninhabited or barbarous country" ... 'barbarous' implying habitation by barbarians was inclusive. Subsequent to various land rights cases mounted through the 1970's the Australian High Court left the door open for a re-assessment of whether the continent should be considered as having been "settled" or "conquered". In 1992 'terra nullius Australis' was directly overturned in the Judgement of the Eddy Mabo case, wherein it was found there was a concept of "native title", based upon a traditional connection to or occupation of land, subject to various qualifiers. The Wik case revised this in 1996 to allow pastoral leases and native title to co-exist over the same area and in the event of a conflict of rights arising, the rights of the pastoralist would prevail.

Answer 2

Australia was not called Terra Nullus, but Terra Australis Incognito. This essentially means "unknown southern land", because the continent was virtually unknown for hundreds of years. Its existence was theorised, and even when the first explorers sailed past the western coastline, the continent remained unexplored and unknown for hundreds of years. Matthew Fkinders first proposed the name of Terra Australis for the land, once it had been circumnavigated and mapped, and this later was shorted to just Australia.

Answer 3

Terra Nullius means "land that belongs to no-one".

This applied to Australia in 1788 because the British did not recognise that the indigenous people of Australia were the rightful "owners" of the land. Because the Aborigines were seen as little more than black savages, the British considered that Australia belonged to no-one and that it was within their right to claim the land as their own, and to do with it (and its people) whatever they wished.

The British sought to expand their empire, and so they applied the doctrine of 'terra nullius' to Australia as that gave them the right to claim and occupy the continent.