The fact is the Mabo judgment extended common law rights to Indigenous people that have been available to other Australians for over 200 years. According to six out of seven judges on the High Court, Indigenous property rights 'native title' survived the Crown's annexation of Australia. In Mabo the High Court overthrew the legal fiction of terra nullius which held that Australia had 'belonged to no one' at the time the British arrived. But the court also held that native title had been validly extinguished by governments over the vast majority of areas where most non-Indigenous Australians now live and work.
Native title is therefore no threat to private property.
It cannot displace privately owned homes or other private property, such as farms, or commercial or residential property, most of which is held under freehold title. The judgment confirmed that the ultimate right to dispose of the land lay with governments. The assertion of sovereignty gave the British Crown, and subsequently the various governments of Australia, radical title to the land that is, the underlying right to control or administer the land but not exclusive ownership. Native title existed in 1788, and may continue to exist, subject to the power of governments to validly extinguish it. The judges also said that native title is extinguished if Indigenous groups have not maintained a connection with their land according to their traditional laws and customs.