The rights Aboriginal people enjoy to their ancestrally inherited land under Australian law. These rights were not recognised when the first British settlers declared Australia terra nullius, that is, the 'uninhabited land'. Since the 1960s Aboriginal people have worked to have these rights recognised in courts of law. The most significant judgements which allow Aboriginal people to claim these rights today are the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act, 1976, and the Mabo judgement of the High Court of Australia in 1992 which acknowledged Aboriginal people's ownership of the land prior to European settlement.