ON 3 APRIL 1889, the Privy Council delivered Cooper v Stuart [1889] UKPC 1 (03 April 1889).

The Privy Council said that New South Wales was “a tract of territory, practically unoccupied, without settled inhabitants or settled land, at the time when it was peacefully annexed to the British dominions” rather than “a Colony acquired by conquest or cession, in which there is an established system of law”.

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