Pre Customary Law 1788

Introduction The making of a nation is a slow and painful process. It needs a people who identify with each other and with the land they inhabit. Australia began that process on 26 January 1788. This essay will attempt to describe the Pre-European Customary law which existed in Australia in 1788. When the first fleet arrived in Botany Bay in 1788, It brought with it all the laws of England. English laws were seen as being every Englishman’s …

…of oneness with the living world. All of these people were deeply religious. Kinship Each individual belonged to a family but also to a tribe or estate group (Dingle, 1988, 9). The basis of the kinship system was that the Aborigines considered their whole group as family. For example, the terms; Mother, Father, Brother Sister, Uncle and Aunt were extended to everyone in the tribe. A number of tribes were united by shared language, beliefs, customs an