Documenting Democracy
Australia's Story

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On Australia Day 1972 Aboriginal people set up a tent embassy

On Australia Day 1972 Aboriginal people set up a tent embassy on the lawns in front of Parliament House. The embassy was removed by police and re-established several times until February 1975, when it closed. The following year Parliament passed the first Commonwealth law on land rights. A second tent embassy, opened on the same site in January 1992 while the High Court was deciding the Mabo Case, still stands in front of the first Parliament House.