Administration of Territory of Papua and New Guinea v Guba [1973] HCA 59

High Court of Australia Barwick C.J. McTiernan, Menzies, Gibbs and Stephen JJ. Administration of Territory of Papua and New Guinea v Guba [1973] HCA 59

ORDER Appeal allowed. Order of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea set aside and in lieu thereof order that appeal to that Court be dismissed.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following plans are the plans referred to in the reasons for judgment of the members of the Court. The following written judgments were delivered:—

1973, Dec. 12 Barwick C.J.

Daera Guba, a Papuan, is the son of Guba Daera, deceased, who in his time was head of the Tubumaga Idibana, a part of a clan of Motu people who in relevant times lived in the area of Port Moresby in New Guinea. Each Motu clan has two sides or iduhu's, in this instance the one known as the Tubumaga Idibana and the other as the Tubumaga Laurina. Daera Guba is now the head man of the Tubumaga Idibana. On behalf of the Tubumaga clan he has laid claim to the ownership of some 42 acres of land in a portion of the town of Port Moresby, which is known as Newtown. The land claimed has been described by a survey plan prepared by an assistant district officer of the Administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea at Daera Guba's request, the boundaries there shown having been pointed out to him by Daera Guba as the boundaries of the land which he claims. These boundaries do not join fixed artificial marks at each point but in places the marks are natural features not of a fixed or permanently placed nature. The name Era Taora, which in the Motu language means flat land at Era, Era being a place name, was assigned by the claimant to the area of land claimed as being its traditional name, and I shall so refer to it in these reasons. It is contained within the letters A-K (excepting I) on the plan with which I have prefaced these reasons [1] . For ease of reference to earlier proceedings and events, the land claimed has been divided into seven sections and each section is numbered and shown by means of different kinds of hatching on the prefaced plan.