Victorian Government Official Apologises for Historical Land Dispossession

Victoria’s Surveyor-General Craig Sandy said that in the past, surveyors had caused significant trauma to Indigenous people by taking their land.

Indigenous performers perform the welcome to country during a smoke ceremony prior to the state funeral service for Uncle Jack Charles at Hamer Hall in Melbourne, Australia, on Oct. 18, 2022. Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Victoria’s Surveyor-General, Craig Sandy, has apologised to the state’s indigenous people for the role played by his predecessors in illegally confiscating their land and causing intergenerational trauma.

When the first European settlers arrived in Australia, it was considered “terra nullius,” a legal term meaning “land over which no previous sovereignty has been exercised.” It was formally enacted into law via a proclamation by New South Wales (NSW) Governor Richard Bourke in 1835, 47 years after the arrival of the First Fleet.