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Land rights interrupted?

How Whitlam’s dismissal changed the history of First Nations land repossession
by Heidi Norman and Francis Markham
October 2025, no. 480

Land rights interrupted?

How Whitlam’s dismissal changed the history of First Nations land repossession
by Heidi Norman and Francis Markham
October 2025, no. 480

On the steps of Federal Parliament, a scrum assembled. Reporters jostled for position, enraged members of the public shouted over one another, advisers stood with faces drained of composure – even a comedian was caught in the fray. At the centre stood the tall and imposing figure of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, listening as the governor-general’s official secretary read the proclamation dissolving Parliament. The moment, instantly mythic, would be remembered as ‘the dismissal’ – the most audacious constitutional rupture in Australian history, one that continues to haunt democratic life half a century on.

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