The High Court of Australia has written the final chapter in the
claim for land rights made by the NSW Aboriginal Legal Service
("ALS") over the Crown lands of the former Berrima Gaol,
finding in favour of the Crown. This decision brings to an end a
legal battle that has spanned 5 years – 2 years more than it
took convicts in irons to build Berrima Gaol prior to its opening
in 1839.
Berrima Gaol has a notorious history, being the site where John
Lynch, Australia's first convicted serial killer, was hanged in
1842, and where solitary confinement, in windowless cells too small
for many to lay upon the ground unfolded, would reputedly extend
for a year at a time. This facility has been closed a number of
times over its history, and it was the most recent closure in 2011
that sparked the land rights claim made by the ALS on 24 February
2012, pursuant to section 36(1)(b) of the Aboriginal Land Right
Act 1983 (NSW) ("the Act"), that would become the
subject of these
