| It was never conceived as a legal doctrine that could be argued or adjudicated by any court, so it's hardly surprising that terra nullius was such an obscure concept. |
| It's almost as if the goal was to preserve the legal fiction that was terra nullius – that the landmass of Australia was empty when the British arrived. |
| Nor was North America terra nullius, free for the taking, as was claimed later. |
| The majority in the High Court rejected the doctrine of terra nullius, in favour of the concept of native title. |
| Aboriginal people were not regarded as human beings, and all cultures have their own sort of collective fantasies, and the idea of terra nullius was a collective fantasy. |
| It was not until the Mabo decision in the Australian High Court in 1992 that the concept of terra nullius was overturned. |
